Samsung is providing Dish Network with a 5G open radio access network (RAN) platform in support of the carrier’s long-simmering nationwide network deployment plans. The move is a significant win for Samsung, which is gaining a robust foothold in the U.S. telecommunications equipment market.

The multi-year agreement will see Samsung Networks Business provide Dish Network with its 5G virtualized RAN (vRAN) software that is designed to run on commercial hardware. Samsung will also provide its open RAN radio units, including its massive MIMO antennas and support for Dish Network’s various spectrum bands and transmission orientations.

The deal is another feather in Samsung’s growing 5G open RAN and vRAN cap.

The company released its first 5G vRAN portfolio in early 2021 following its blockbuster RAN agreement with Verizon, which was the first operator to commercially deploy the new equipment.

Samsung also gained a foothold in Vodafone’s plan to deploy 2,500 open RAN sites in the southwest of England and most of Wales.

The vendor earlier this year was a core piece of the world’s first 5G standalone open RAN site. That work was with Japan’s KDDI and Fujitsu, and used Samsung’s virtualized RAN software running on commercial off-the-shelf servers, Samsung’s baseband, and Fujitsu radios connected via open interfaces.

Samsung has been expected to gain market share in the west following pressure from governments to remove equipment used by China-based vendors like Huawei and ZTE. MTN Consulting recently noted that Samsung posted the second-most market share gain last year based on its RAN and networking equipment.

The deal is also the latest drip of insight into Dish Network’s long delayed and still pending commercial 5G launch.

The current mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) and spectrum holder has been sitting on a deadline to provide 5G service to at least 20% of the U.S. population by the beginning of this summer. It has no operator-owned and commercially available network to speak of today.

It was expected to launch its first commercial service in Las Vegas last year, but has so far not flipped that switch. Company executives remain steadfast in their collective commitment to prove Dish can and will meet its goal of becoming a nationwide 5G provider, but they also readily admit it’s been more difficult than expected.

“We’re six months behind where we thought we’d be, and it’s my fault. We just didn’t maybe anticipate that we would have to do as much on the technical side,” Dish chair and co-founder Charlie Ergen said on the company’s fourth-quarter of 2021 earnings call.

Samsung joins the more than 30 vendors that Dish has signed deals with to provide its unique cloud-native 5G open RAN-based network running largely on the public cloud. This includes Amazon Web Services (AWS), Nokia, Dell Technologies, and Cisco.

“Ultimately we found that we had to become the system integrator. It wasn’t a role that we thought we were going to take on. But with all the vendors, somebody’s got to be the middleman between them and be the glue that holds them together,” he said. “We probably squandered some time, but that’s my fault.”

Dish is expected to provide an update on its 5G deployment plans during an analyst day it’s hosting next week.