Friday, June 9, 2017

Dish Wireless: The Invisible Network

Dish does not operate a wireless network of their own but they possess one of the largest assignments of wireless spectrum.  They have notified the FCC of plans that include the date of a required buildout and what type of network they will construct.  Their notification indicates they will construct a nationwide network to serve the IoT (Internet of Things) market that they project will grow from 17 Billion devices currently to over 75 Billion devices within the next 8 years.  This has the potential of being a network that most of us will use, but won't have the opportunity, or the need, to sign up for.  This Dish Wireless network may be connected to all our new wireless gadgets that could include our autonomous cars or, the Next Big Thing.


Of course this could all be smoke and mirrors.  Most likely, the existing cellular networks will have the capacity to connect all the IoT devices.  Critics say Dish is just buying time until someone comes to the table and buys all their spectrum.  We hope they do build a new network, even if we never know when we're using it, but we fear we'll lose one of our current major carriers before they can get a new one built.  We'll share updates as we find them here at the Wireless Noise.

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