Dish's 5G Rollout Was Supposed to Hit a Milestone: What You Need To Know

Dish Network, the satellite TV giant and fledgling mobile carrier, is poised to miss its June 14 deadline to offer 5G wireless service to at least 20 percent of the US population. Dish acquired wireless spectrum for years, but very little of a wireless network materialized. Then in 2020, Dish entered the mobile market by acquiring some of Sprint's mobile licenses, which Sprint was shedding as part of its merger with T-Mobile. The complex transaction suddenly made Dish the country's fourth-biggest carrier and led to the creation of Dish Wireless service. But the Federal Communications Commission had a stipulation. To ensure competition, the regulatory agency required Dish to make sure 20 percent of Americans would be covered by its 5G network by June 14, 2022, a target the carrier is poised to miss. Although Dish has been building out its network, the carrier has only confirmed 5G service in one US city, which went live May 2022. Unless Dish has quietly activated service in over two dozen more cities since then, it seems the carrier hasn't met its FCC-mandated target. It's unclear whether Dish will suffer any consequences for potentially missing the deadline. Here's what there is to know about Dish's 5G plans.