Green field US MNO Dish has been doshing out the work for building its 5G network recently and Nokia has managed to grab a piece of the core action.
Specifically Nokia will be providing the software for Dish’s standalone 5G core, which represents a significant coup on many levels. Not only is the business itself very welcome, but it serves as a strong endorsement of Nokia’s software competence, especially in the crucial area of ‘cloud native’, which is what all the cool operators are into these days.
“This is an important step in bringing to life Dish’s plans to deliver the first open, agile, virtualized 5G network in the U.S,” said Marc Rouanne, Dish Chief Network Officer. “Nokia’s new release is cloud-native, standalone and ready for full automation, providing Dish the software capabilities required to deliver thousands of network slices with low latency and SLA on demand.”
“The benefits of Nokia’s industry-leading, cloud-native standalone 5G Core products built on our proven Common Software Foundation — near-zero-touch automation capabilities, high-level operational efficiencies, scale and performance – continue to set us apart from the competition,” said Bhaskar Gorti, President of Nokia Software.
Rouanne is clearly not one to bear a grudge, having been turfed out of Nokia less than two years ago. The agreement includes subscriber data management, device management, packet core, voice and data core, and integration services. Nokia joins Altiostar, VMWare and Matrixx at the hottest gig in town. No sign of Ericsson though. For further comment from the execs involved, check out this Light Reading report.