DISH Wireless and Cisco Partnering on 5G Services

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LITTLETON, Colo. — DISH Wireless and Cisco are teaming up to “accelerate” 5G services in the United States. 

Ciso and DISH Wireless entered into a multi-layered agreement designed to enable businesses to capitalize on DISH’s 5G network and application infrastructure to support new hybrid work models, according to the companies last month.

Working with Cisco, DISH plans to “unlock the value and benefit of 5G” for businesses by building a smart 5G network in the country. 

The open network will allow DISH to customize solutions and enable enterprise-driven “slices of its network” to meet the needs of specific industries. 

The DISH 5G network will be “powered by” a comprehensive mix of Cisco’s latest cloud networking and automation software as well as a blend of end-to-end life cycle services from Cisco Customer Experience (CX).

Cisco and DISH are “disrupting the mobile and enterprise markets” by launching cloud-powered 5G services through innovative technologies, fostering new application development, and improving the overall customer experience, said Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO, Cisco. 

“Together, we look forward to helping businesses across industries transform their networks to support the evolution of hybrid work models, the transition to Network as a Service (NaaS) offers, and the expansion into new markets including IoT.”

DISH has compiled an “outstanding roster of partners” in the wireless industry, and Cisco is a key player helping DISH launch a customizable and automated 5G network optimized for enterprise performance,” said Charlie Ergen, chairman, DISH. 

The agreement between Cisco and DISH includes the following elements:  

• Go-to-market strategy: DISH will participate in Cisco’s Reseller and Managed Services Program to deliver private 5G services to the enterprise, and the companies will invest in joint go-to-market plans. 
• Deployment of an intelligent transport network: Cisco is helping to plan, design, and deliver an open, cloud-based network that will predict, self-heal, and self-optimize with closed-loop automation for transport network slicing. 
• Co-innovation on virtual routing: DISH’s 5G network will be powered with fully automated Cisco XRv9K virtualized routers running on AWS, along with virtual Cell Site Routers (vCSR) at the tower. This is a fully containerized virtual routing implementation with a purpose-built data plane to unlock the full potential for cloud-native networking.
• New operational models: Cisco is helping DISH build out a lean DevOps organization that drives automation and improves operational efficiency, leading to faster time to market with new services, speed to revenue, and return on investments. Key outcomes are CI/CD testing and zero-touch onboarding to enable DISH to quickly go from development to pre-production as well as staging and testing directly to production.
• Technology resources: Cisco will support DISH with the following: IOS-XR operating system for 5G, backhaul and fronthaul transport via Cisco NCS series routers, segment routing for automated traffic management and network slicing, Nexus 9000 series with an Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) fabric for data center switching, and Cisco Crosswork Network Controller as the transport domain controller, including automated service provisioning and assurance.