Rakuten Mobile is generally seen as the trailblazer for new 5G architectures, but even the Japanese disruptor has not put its RAN or core into the public cloud, but is instead building out its own dense edge cloud to support its roll-out. Dish Network, which often says it is following Rakuten’s blueprint, has gone a step further and said it will run its whole 5G network, even the vRAN, in the AWS cloud.
This appears to be a massive gamble, which will force Dish to address its challenging roll-out deadlines using an entirely unproven platform. Its trial networks have used a VMware telco cloud layer, with RAN virtual network functions from Mavenir and Altiostar running on Intel FlexRAN.
It is not clear whether Dish will continue to run VMware on the AWS cloud, but it did say it will run some of its Open RAN distributed units on AWS’s own Graviton processors, while keeping others on Intel – so presumably the VNF suppliers will have to re-engineer their software to run on Graviton.
As well as the RAN and core VNFs, Dish will move orchestration, management, business support systems and other software to the AWS cloud.
In making this decision, Dish is going well beyond other operators with commitments to public cloud deployments, such as AT&T, which is migrating OSS/BSS, but not the network itself (though it has hinted this could come at a later stage).
The boldness of the Dish move gives rise to speculation that the cloud decision, and the choice of AWS as that cloud partner, is a prelude to a far wider deal with Amazon. It has often been rumored that Amazon might become the anchor tenant for a wholesale enterprise-focused 5G network operated by Dish, which would certainly bring Dish much-needed new revenue and investment, and a clear business case.
It certainly seems that Dish needs to have a strong wholesale element to its proposition – otherwise it will be left with its low-margin consumer mobile offering, built around Boost Mobile and two other MVNO acquisitions; and a 5G addition that will fail to rescue its failing satellite TV operation. If a deal with Amazon, or another anchor tenant, does not emerge, the other potential outcome would be to support the US cablecos’ 5G expansion, either as a wholesaler or an acquisition.