Dish: Our 5G network is for the good of the US

Dish’s Charlie Ergen said that the Federal Communications Commission should support his company’s efforts to build out a 5G wireless network because it would aid the United States’ technological position on the global stage. "The goal that they [at the FCC] have—to help the United States be the No. 1 in 5G—and the goal that we have at Dish, is exactly the same,” Ergen said. “And so we're very pleased with that. And in a world where the incumbents are going to have hybrid networks, between 4G and 5G, and in a world where China is building stand-alone 5G networks, Japan is going to build a stand-alone 5G network, for the United States to lead in 5G you're going to have to have stand-alone 5G networks. And so we think we're the company that's best positioned to do that." Ergen explained that Dish’s plan to use its spectrum holdings is separated into two phases. The first phase involves the company spending up to $1 billion by 2020 to build an narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network. He said the second phase involves the company building a “stand-alone” 5G network—a network that doesn’t need to support 4G services.