The last year or so has been rough for Dish Network Corp. The company bled subscribers with an overall revenue loss in the billions, and its 5G rollout stalled due to a variety of difficulties. But Dish plans to have some kind of basic wireless service in place by the second quarter of 2022 no matter what.
Dish chairman Charlie Ergen gave details on issues with 5G in a recent update, reports the Wall Street Journal. In a conference call, he told reporters that the project was six months behind, and it was his fault. He also reportedly said that Dish did not realize the complications involved in making a huge variety of equipment and software work together, including services for enhanced 911.
Dish has been planning a cellular network for over three years. The company bought Sprint’s prepaid phone service in 2019 and then — in the name of fair competition — had to promise the US government that it would put up its own network of towers, bumping the number of major cell carriers from three (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) back up to four. According to the deal, Dish has to offer a wireless service that reaches at least 20% of all Americans by June 2022, with a second deadline of 70% by June 2023. If Dish can’t hit those marks, it could face fines.
The WSJ also reports that Dish is losing pay-TV customers by the thousands — and saw a Q4 loss of profit, dropping 2.4% to $4.45 billion. We’ll see if the loss of subscriber revenue is enough motivation for Dish to put its foot on the gas in meeting that June deadline, which would keep both customers and the government happy.
Read Next
About The Author
