Dish declares 'win-win-win' for 12 GHz band

Dish Network has its sights set on the 12 GHz band for 5G, and it isn’t backing down, even in the face of some pretty stiff competition. Dish—which is in the process of building out a cloud-native, open RAN-based 5G network—itself uses the 12 GHz band for direct broadcast satellite (DBS). Yet it says sharing with 5G in the band is feasible, and while it still wants to support the diminishing TV satellite business (DBS) business, it’s confident that sharing isn’t going to hurt those customers. Expert studies back this up, according to Dish. Basically, Dish is of the belief that a lot of different stakeholders can use the 12 GHz band, but the rules need to be changed so that it can be used for two-way 5G terrestrial services rather than be impeded by current restrictions.