With two years to go before it has to light up 70% of the country with its proposed 5G wireless service, Dish Network said it has inked a “strategic collaboration agreement” with online giant Amazon’s Amazon Web Services, selecting Las Vegas as the first city to receive service. 

Dish shares were up 5.4% ($2.01 each) in early trading April 21 to $38.90 per share on the news. The stock was priced at $38.70 per share, up 5% as of 10:40 a.m. on Wednesday.

Dish has been amassing wireless spectrum for years to build out its network, and last year agreed to buy another $3.6 billion worth of spectrum from T-Mobile over three years, part of the conditions imposed by the feds on the larger wireless company’s purchase of Sprint. As part of that deal, Dish has to build out its network to at least 20% of its footprint by 2022 and 70% by 2023, or risk losing those licenses. 

Also Read: Dish: No Partner Needed for 5G Wireless Dance  

The satellite company is basing its 5G offering on Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) technology, which utilizes a series of small antennas and base stations to deliver service via the cloud. With that tech focus, AWS, the most popular cloud provider on the internet, is a natural partner.   

Also Read: Dish Wireless Pushed Forward 

The selection of AWS is the next step in the long process of building the network. In an email message, MoffettNathanson principal and senior analyst Craig Moffett likened the deal to a similar arrangement AWS has with Verizon. 

“It’s certainly far short of the big strategic partnership people so many people have been waiting for,” Moffett said in the email. “ Strip away the marketing-speak, and the press release is really just an announcement that Dish has chosen AWS as a vendor.  What’s missing is any serious reciprocal commitment from AWS. If anything, it reads as less of a strategic partnership than the one that Verizon already has with AWS.”

Dish said the cloud-based service simplifies the process for developers to create new applications. 

“Through this collaboration with AWS, we will operate not just as a communications services provider, but as a digital services provider harnessing the combined power of 5G connectivity and the cloud,” Dish chairman Charlie Ergen said in a press release. “Together, we will enable our customers to take full advantage of the potential of 5G. Our approach will revolutionize wireless connectivity by giving customers the ability to customize and scale their network experience on-demand. 

“As a new carrier, leveraging AWS and its extensive network of partners enables us to differentiate ourselves by operating our 5G network with a high degree of automation, utilizing the talent of AWS-trained developers and helping our customers bring new 5G applications to market faster than ever before,” he continued.

Dish has been under the gun to start building the service -- it has to build out 20% of its footprint by the end of 2022 -- and in December issued about $2 billion in convertible notes to help fund the buildout. On its March earnings conference call with analysts, Ergen said that offering, coupled with about $4 billion in cash on hand, gives the satellite company sufficient firepower to build the network.

Dish has said it would cost about $10 billion to build its 5G network, a figure that some analysts have feared is too low. 

“DISH’s cloud-native and truly virtualized 5G network is a clear example of how AWS customers can use our proven infrastructure and unparalleled portfolio of services to reinvent industries,” Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy said in a press release. “This collaboration means Dish and its customers can bring new consumer- and enterprise-centric services to the market as quickly as they’re created to deliver on the promise of 5G. Together, we’re opening the door to new technologies that will transform factories, workplaces, entertainment, and transportation in ways people have only dreamed.”

A bipartisan group of senators led by Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) has called on President Biden to put $3 billion toward funding Open Radio Access Network (ORAN), so those equipment vendors can compete in the 5G market with Chinese network tech suppliers Huawei and ZTE.

That came in a request as the President prepares his 2022 budget. The money would go into the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund and the Multilateral Telecommunications Security Fund ($1.5 billion in each), which were created in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021.

Chinese suppliers are subsidized by the government, so Warner and company want to boost U.S. tech's chances of competing, particularly since the U.S. is in the process of ripping and replacing Huawei and ZTE tech from networks built with government subsidies, and is being pressed by some, including FCC commissioner Brendan Carr, to bar Chinese telecoms from network buildouts with private capital.

Also Read: FCC's Rosenworcel Pushes Deep Dive on ORAN

"For years, we have called on telecommunications providers in the U.S., as well as our allies and partners, to reject Huawei 5G technology, but we have not provided competitively-priced, innovative alternatives that would address their needs," the Senators wrote in a letter to the President, a copy of which was provided to Multichannel News. "As wireless networks adapt to the growing demands for 5G connectivity, a new Open RAN architecture will allow telecommunications providers to migrate from the current hardware-centric approach into a software-centric model that relies heavily on cloud-based services. This architecture will break down the current end-to-end proprietary stack of hardware; lower barriers to entry and prompt innovation; diversify the supply chain and decrease dependence on foreign suppliers; and spur Open RAN deployments throughout the United States, particularly in rural America."

The FCC, which is overseeing the suspect tech rip-and-replace program, has been collecting string on the ORAN alternative, including holding a virtual forum on the technology last year.

Also signing on to the letter were Intelligence Committee vice chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Susan Collins (R-Me.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Angus King (I-Me.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).

The FCC's acting chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, plans to open a formal discussion on next steps in the investigation of Open Radio Access Networks (ORAN) as a way to address network security issues.

ORAN is open, interoperable more software-centric (virtualized) 5G network architecture that is easier to secure from foreign malware and allows for U.S. and other companies to be bigger network players than in hardware-centric nets given that foreign suppliers are the leaders in hardware while the U.S. is a software leader.

The Notice of Inquiry has been circulated to the other commissioners for a vote at the FCC's next (March 17) public meeting.

Also Read: FCC Takes Next Steps Toward Network Security

The idea is to collect input on "whether and how" the FCC could foster the successful development and deployment of ORAN, including standards, with the aid of "federal partners, industry, academia, or others."

“Open RAN has emerged as one promising path to drive 5G security and innovation in the United States,” said Rosenworcel in a statement. “With this inquiry, we will start to compile a record about how we can secure our vulnerable supply chains once and for all, and revitalize the nation’s 5G leadership and innovation.”

Also Read: ORAN Should Be Option in Rip and Replace

In December of last year, when the FCC approved a rip-and-replace regime for suspect network tech suppliers ZTE and Huawei, Rosenworcel said more work needed to be done on ORAN, including using the FCC as a test bed. 

At the same time, fellow Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks said he would have preferred the ZTE/Huawei item require that those replacing suspect tech with government funds demonstrate that they had considered ORAN alternatives.

“For several years, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has convened an interagency effort to address the threat of untrusted digital infrastructure vendors, with important contributions from FCC Commissioner Starks - including attention to the role of Open RAN in potentially catalyzing innovation from American and allied suppliers," said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I’m happy to hear that Acting Chairwoman Rosenworcel has announced efforts by the Commission to take up this important topic.”

The FCC has voted on a Second Report and Order (a final action) to approve the framework for preventing the use of suspect tech in U.S. networks and removing (the new term of art rather than "ripping") and replacing existing suspect tech, including a process for identifying which tech to expel.

The FCC called it a major step to protect those networks from potential security threats. That vote came at what will be the second to the last meeting for FCC chairman Ajit Pai and the last for outgoing Republican commissioner Michael O'Rielly.

Thursday's decision comes in the face of the exponential growth of internet-connected devices controlling everything from power grids to refrigerators; an increasingly hunkered down, work and play from home, virtual world; and the wealth of data, personal and otherwise, being trafficked on the 'net and stored in the cloud.

Now, the FCC just needs Congress to pony up the money for the rip-and-replace regime that was mandated in the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Act.

The FCC has already formally designated Huawei and ZTE as suspect tech and excluded them from the $8.3 billion in Universal Service Fund broadband subsidy money.

Related: Senate Bill Would Boost Rip-and-Replace Eligibility

The rules require Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETCs) to "remove and replace covered equipment from their networks," and create a "Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program" to fund smaller carriers' removal and replacement of suspect tech, at least once Congress has appropriated the $1.6 billion the FCC has estimated it will cost.

The FCC also approved a Second Report and Order that:

•  "Adopts rules to publish and modify a list of communications equipment and services that Congress or enumerated national security agencies or interagency bodies with appropriate national security expertise determine pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of its people.

• "Prohibits the use of any Federal subsidy that is made available through a program administered by the Commission and that provides funds to be used for the capital expenditures necessary for the provision of advanced communications service to purchase, rent, or otherwise obtain any covered communications equipment or services.

• "Establishes the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Reimbursement Program, which will provide funds for the removal, replacement, and disposal of covered communications equipment and services, and condition the start of the program on Congress appropriating the funds the Commission estimates that program will cost.

• "Requires Eligible Telecommunications Carriers and participants in the Secure and Trusted Communications Network Reimbursement Program to remove, replace, and dispose of covered communications equipment and services in their networks.

• "Requires all providers of advanced communications services to report whether their networks use covered communications equipment or services acquired after August 14, 2018."

FCC chairman Ajit Pai has said those all are "critical next steps toward securing our communications networks." 

Commissioner O'Rielly said the need to protect networks from harm has never been more apparent. He said the FCC is effectively closing out market in the interests of national security and that those actions will have global repercussions, but that ultimately he supported the item. He said that a mandated rip and destroy program will look more like "duplicate and dismantle," so the FCC needs to be mindful of the disruption it will create.

He said the FCC should not tip the scales toward certain companies or pick technologies winners and losers, and should tread carefully.

Commissioner Brendan Carr, after first saying O'Rielly had outworked probably everyone in this building, pointed out he had promoted rip-and-remove a couple of years ago, and the need for that program had only grown. He said the record is clear on China's intent to spy on the U.S. to get an industrial and business edge. 

He said the FCC "has shown the strength and resolve to meet this threat." He also said it had turned the page on "the weak and timid approach to China of the past," and that it would be a mistake to revert to that approach, a not-to-veiled reference to Republican concerns about the approach of a Biden Administration. 

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel began her comments with a shout-out to O'Rielly, saying that she appreciated his allegiance to the Constitution, "even in times where it may not have been convenient or easy." O'Rielly's nomination was pulled by President Trump, a move generally credited to O'Rielly's defense of the First Amendment against attempts to regulate social media speech, attempts the President has supported.

Of the item, Rosenworcel said the Chinese government is still trying to consolidate its 5G authority and sustain its supply chain advantages. She said that means banning two vendors--Huawei and ZTE--is a start, but not enough. She said there needs to be a more comprehensive national 5G security strategy. 

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, having saluted O'Rielly as well, called the item "another important step in confronting the threat of insecure equipment in our nation’s communications networks." Given the seriousness and urgency of the threats to our networks, I am glad that we have decided to move forward with today’s Order, even as we await an appropriation," he said.

He also said he appreciated the chairman's willingness to tweak the item. 

"I am pleased that the chairman worked with me to make changes to today’s Order that will further reduce the national security impact of the funding lag," said Starks. "The version we now adopt will effectuate the recommendations by chairman Frank Pallone and ranking member Greg Walden and make clear that the Commission intends to develop and release the Catalogue of Eligible Expenses as soon as possible, so that it can be a resource to providers who wish to begin the replacement process before reimbursement funding becomes available. It also encourages companies to proceed with the replacement process before the reimbursement program is funded with confidence that doing so will not jeopardize their eligibility. These steps should encourage providers to make these critical security improvements now."

Pai, who had already praised O'Rielly in his opening statement, went straight to the issue. 

He talked about the previous (Democratic) FCC's watch, during which he said China's rise drew praise from the Administration and Chinese equipment was allowed to be incorporated into U.S. networks "with nary an eyebrow raised." But he said that had changed under his watch.

"We have made real progress in securing our networks and supply chains," he said, including the initial designations of Huawei and ZTE as national security threats, and pushing for open radio access networks (ORANs).

Pai also put in another plug for Congress to fund the program, which could cost upwards of $1.6 billion.

Rosenworcel suggested more needed to be done on ORANs, including the FCC launching testbeds, and Starks said he would have preferred the item require that those replacing suspect tech with government demonstrate that they had considered ORAN solutions.

The Telecommunications Industry Association supported the move. 

“In the midst of a pandemic, we depend on our networks more than ever to keep us working and learning from home," said TIA CEO David Stehlin. "We urge Congress to now appropriate the necessary funds and make this critical investment to ensure the security of our nation’s digital infrastructure."

The FCC has re-scheduled its postponed forum on 5G open radio access networks (ORAN) to Sept. 14, headlined by FCC chairman Ajit Pai and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

Those are the software-centric virtualized radio access networks that can help reduce the reliance on foreign 5G network components like the Huawei and ZTE tech the government is excluding and likely ripping and replacing from U.S. nets. 

Related: Oran Should Be Option in Rip and Replace 

The forum had been planned for March at the FCC, but was postponed due to COVID-19. 

The Sept. 14 event will be via video conference and streamed online and feature government and industry leaders to talk about how the nets can "offer an alternative to traditional cellular network architecture and could enable a diversity in suppliers, better network security, and lower costs." 

Related: ORAN Bill Added to Must-Pass Legislation

“Open and virtualized radio access networks may help operators deploy more secure, cost-effective 5G networks,” said Pai in a statement. “As part of the FCC’s 5G FAST Plan, the agency has taken many actions to promote American leadership in next generation wireless services. To that end, we want the United States to lead the way in researching and developing innovative approaches to mobile network deployment." 

Pai will both provide opening remarks (followed by Pompeo) and moderate the opening panel. 

The forum will feature four panels: Introduction to Open, Interoperable, and Virtualized Networks (Pai's panel), followed by Benefits of Deployment/Driving Innovation, Lessons from the Field: Where Do We Go from Here? and Technical Deep Dive.  

Among the panelists are Mariam Sorond from CableLabs, Cristiano Amon from Qualcomm and Stephen Bye from Dish. 

"Open RAN networks enable providers to bring together best-in-class vendors, including from the U.S., unleashing innovation and unlocking the economic potential enabled by 5G," said Dish's Bye. "We are proud to be building the nation's first cloud native Open RAN based 5G network, and want to thank chairman Pai for organizing this forum to discuss a key component in the future of American connectivity.”

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said an ORAN (open radio access network)-targeted 5G funding bill he has championed has been added to the next managers' amendment for the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, which he said will pass by the end of the year. That is the good news, he said on a USTelecom webinar Tuesday (June 30). 

Related: Open RAN Group Sees Cloud on 5G Horizon...and That's a Good Thing

The bad news is that the funding levels have been dramatically cut down to a "minuscule" amount, says Warner, who is ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, an amount that does not signal the U.S. is serious to moving toward a more cloud-base, less Huawei tech-based model for 5G network architecture, he said. 

The bill as initially drawn up would provide $1 billion-plus, including $750 million for ORAN R&D and another $500 million for collaboration with international partners. In order to get it into the Defense bill, those numbers have been cut to $50 million (in the first year) for R&D and $25 million for collaboration. 

ORAN is open, interoperable more software-centric (virtualized) 5G network architecture that is easier to secure from foreign malware and allows for U.S. and other companies to be bigger network players.

Warner said it is short of 5G as industrial policy, but also a signal that the U.S. recognizes that it is tough for the Samsungs and Nokia's and Ericcsons to compete with Chinese tech suppliers like Huawei that are bankrolled by the Chinese government. Given that, the U.S. has to start thinking differently, he said. 

Warner is speaking from experience as the former founder of Nextel. 

Warner urged the companies on the Webinar to get their CEOs to weigh in so those figures could be boosted in a further iteration of the bill and the U.S. could reassert its leadership in the 5G competition with the Chinese government. 

Related: Tech Companies Coalesce Around Safer 5G RAN Supply Chain

Warner said on the webinar that he thought over the past 20 years or so that we, by which he meant the U.S. and U.S. companies and the West "writ large" were so used to leading in wireless on rules and standards and protocols that "we kind of fell asleep at the switch." 

He said that included both the Obama Administration and the Trump Administration, the latter which he said had made things worse, neither of which he said had articulated a clear path forward for 5G. 

Warner said that path should be ORAN-centric, which means more modular, cloud-based, and software-centric, which translates to a network based more on the software side that the U.S. has dominated, and which is easier to secure than one based in Huawei tech backed by the Chinese Communist party. 

He said not since Sputnik has the U.S. not dominated in standards to the extent it is currently not doing so in 5G. 

He also warned that China's rise in 5G tech and standard-setting and the issue of network security could be the blueprint for similar issues with artificial intelligence and quantum computing. 

He said the Chinese model was to encourage ferocious competition in the domestic market, then when a "national champion" emerges, support their dominance of the Chinese market, like Huawei in 5G (with 70%-80% of the domestic market), which translates to %20-30% of the global market, which makes it hard competitors that don't have that government incubation. 

He said he feared that could happen with AI and cloud computing if the U.S. doesn't get 5G right.  

China recently announced a trillion-dollar investment in AI, cloud and other new tech.

The newly-formed Open Radio Access Network [ORAN] Policy Coalition is urging the FCC to use its implementation of the Secure and Trusted Networks Act to promote open, interoperable, software solutions for a secure 5G supply chain.  

Related: House Republicans Praise New 5G Security Coalition 

Congress basically mandated the FCC to do what it was already planning to, but will also fund the process, which the FCC definitely needed. 

Related: Commerce Hits Huawei with New Restrictions 

The idea both in an FCC item that preceded the bill, and in the bill, is to prevent government broadband subsidy to be used by any carrier planning to use suspect tech (at the outset the FCC proposed putting Chinese telecoms Huawei and ZTE in that category) in their broadband buildouts, as well as to come up with a way, and the money, to fund "rip and replace" or "offramp and replace" that technology from existing networks. 

At the same time, the FCC is looking at open Radio Access Networks, which "softwire" as it were rather than hardwire network architecture using radio waves rather than physical connections, thus virtualizing more of the network and making it more software dependent, a space the U.S. dominates, rather than hardware-dependent, where China, and particularly Huawei, dominate. 

That is the coalition's sweet spot, obviously. 

"[I]t is a national security imperative that U.S. communications networks provide secure and reliable connectivity," the coalition told the FCC in comments on its implementation of the Secure and Trusted Networks Act, pointing out that open and interoperable RAN solutions are ready to be the replace in "rip and replace." 

The coalition wants the FCC to develop a list of categories of equipment and services that includes open RAN and virtual solutions and avoid picking "winners and losers," which it arguably would be if it went with a list of specific technologies and suppliers rather than categories. 

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) also asked the FCC to avoid picking tech winners and losers, and to do so by using categories rather than lists of specific tech. 

The coalition currently comprises Airspan, Altiostar, AT&T, AWS, Cisco, CommScope, Dell, DISH Network, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks, Mavenir, Microsoft, NEC Corporation, NewEdge Signal Solutions, NTT, Oracle, Parallel Wireless, Qualcomm, Rakuten Mobile, Samsung Electronics America, Telefónica, US Ignite, Verizon, VMWare, Vodafone, World Wide Technology, and XCOM-Labs.