Dish will have to pull a rabbit out of its hat for a sudden launch of its new 5G network across the country. The company is rapidly approaching a June 14 FCC deadline to launch 5G service to 20% of the US population, which it said it plans to do in 125 cities.
Dish has already gotten a major reprieve on this deadline. The company previously had a 2020 buildout deadline, which it got an extension from as part of the deal around the Sprint/T-Mobile merger. So it's not clear if the FCC will punish Dish for missing this deadline, if it does.
Thanks to a tipster on Twitter, we can reveal that the open cell-site-mapping platform Cellmapper has been tracking Dish sites going up in several of the cities it promised, but falling far short of the carrier's pledged list.
Cellmapper has towers active in, at best, 10 cities. It shows 16 towers in Las Vegas, the city Dish has actually launched; two towers in San Diego; two in Denver right near Dish's headquarters in Littleton, CO; one in Denton, TX; probably one in Houston; four in Jackson, MS; one outside St. Louis; two in Sioux Falls, SD; and two near Ocala, FL.
Some of the Cellmapper tower reports stretch back to 2021, but several popped up as new in the past week.
They're almost all low-band, Band 71 towers, with relatively low speeds but maximum coverage. They're all reported as 5G standalone, which would be correct for Dish since it aims to be the first 5G-only network in the country.
Currently, Dish sells service in one city, Las Vegas, with one phone, the Motorola Edge+. Unlimited service on Dish's network and roaming on AT&T 5G costs $30/month. Dish has said that it intends to launch a "Boost Infinite" brand for the new service later this year.
Dish's 20% coverage requirement is only a springboard. By June 14, 2023, the carrier needs to cover 70% of the US population, Fierce Wireless reports.