Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen remains confident that the company’s cloud-based 5G network will allow it to drive value from the enterprise and private 5G wireless space despite recent moves by T-Mobile US deeper into that space and comments from established telecom operators like Verizon and AT&T that those markets are developing much slower than expected.

During Dish Network’s latest earnings call, Ergen compared his company’s network path using open radio access network (RAN) architecture versus his established rivals to that of Netflix versus Blockbuster.

“It boils down to we have a modern, 5G, smart network based in the cloud on open RAN principles. ... That's Netflix versus Blockbuster,” Ergen said. “It took Netflix some time. Wall Street was very skeptical of them early on. It took them time to prove the concept. But it was better, faster, cheaper. And it's pretty hard to fail in business if you're better, faster, cheaper. And our network is going to be better, faster, cheaper.”

Ergen also referenced a recent white paper from large European telecommunication operators that are working through challenges in deploying open radio access network (RAN) technology into their legacy operations, stating “legacy is an anchor around their neck.”

Dish Network is also confident that its cloud-based 5G path will allow it to more efficiently penetrate the lucrative – though still evolving – enterprise market. This despite a recent deal between rival T-Mobile US and Amazon Web Services (AWS) that makes the operator the first in the U.S. to take advantage of AWS’ new Private Wireless platform.

“Everybody is going to look at edge compute and some of those things, and that’s a precursor to private networks,” Ergen said. “Maybe the street looked at that as a negative … but I think the more the merrier when it comes to private networks because that’s something that you need, competition between companies to make sure it scales.”

Verizon and AT&T have been more tempered in their private network enthusiasm, with executives from both carriers noting slower than expected growth in the market.

Rick Welday, EVP and GM for enterprise markets at AT&T Business, recently noted that the carrier’s enterprise customers are “trying to better understand what we could do with our 5G network and where private might play a role.”

Ergen also played down any significance to the recent move by former Dish Network enterprise executive Stephen Bye in stepping down from his position to take the president role for digital media conglomerate Ziff Davis’ Connectivity division.

“I don't personally think that there was anything in his leaving that would reflect badly or reflect any kind of concern that the private enterprise business isn't a big business,” Ergen said. “I think that if anything, I think he and we are probably more optimistic than we were a year ago on that.”

Dish Network executives also remain optimistic the operator will be able to hit looming coverage requirements for some of its spectrum licenses.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires license owners to meet specific coverage build out requirements based on a certain percentage of the U.S. population that those licenses cover. These rules vary based on different spectrum bands but are in place to ensure that a license owner is putting those licenses to work for the common good and not just sitting on those licenses to sell at a later date.

Dish is staring at a 70% population coverage obligation that hits this year. This will effectively require Dish to provide service in every U.S. city with a population greater than 500,000 people.

Dave Mayo, EVP for network development at Dish Network, explained the operator continues to construct 1,000 new cell sites per month and was sitting on more than 17,000 sites either completed or being constructed. He noted this will allow the operator to hit its 70% coverage requirement.

“It typically takes three, maybe four months from the time you start the site until you finish the construction, get power and telco. Power and telco are probably the two risks that we have, but we’re optimistic that we’ll see the 70%,” Mayo said.

Ergen added that Dish Network’s network build progress was also being boosted by finally getting new equipment suppliers into its supply chain. Specifically, Samsung’s virtualized RAN (vRAN) equipment was now live on Dish’s wireless network. That agreement was initially announced last May.

Samsung said it plans to initially supply 24,000 open RAN-compliant radios and 5G vRAN software systems to Dish Network. This includes its virtualized distributed radio units (vDUs), virtualized central radio units (vCUs), and 5G radios that support Dish Network’s diverse spectrum portfolio.

Mavenir this week also stated it was now supporting more than 40,000 radios across Dish Network’s operations.

Ergen added that Dish Network will likely begin to slow its build plans once the carrier reaches its 70% coverage mark and turn its focus toward network optimization. This should help the operator better manage its capex requirements.

Ergen also copped to Dish Network reacting a bit too quickly late last year when it raised $1.5 billion in new funds to pay for its network build. That amount did come with a significant 11.75% interest rate tied to the notes that has a 2027 repayment date.

“Obviously, we look at the marketplace and where we probably in hindsight we went a little too early for the bond deal before the first of the year,” Ergen said. “But we wanted certainty to make sure that we met our build out and took that overhang off the table.”

Ergen previously stated that the full 5G network build could run Dish in the neighborhood of $10 billion, which he explained could be spread out until 2025.