ARMONK, N.Y. and LITTLETON, Colo., Sept. 14, 2021 — DISH Network Corporation (NYSE:DISH) selected IBM to help automate the United States’ first greenfield cloud-native 5G network. DISH’s new smart network will be designed to be agile, scalable and fully virtualized, benefitting enterprise customers across all industry verticals. DISH will leverage IBM’s AI-powered automation and network orchestration software and services to bring broad 5G network orchestration to DISH’s business and operations platforms. Intent-driven orchestration, a software-powered automation process, and artificial intelligence (AI) will be utilized to drive the operations of DISH’s cloud-native 5G network architecture.
DISH has engaged IBM Global Business Services to use IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation software with DISH’s 5G network architecture. Central to this is the intent-based orchestration functionality designed to stitch hardware and software resources together more seamlessly and efficiently, expected to help DISH make network slicing possible and accelerate the creation and delivery of new services.
IBM Cloud Pak for Network Automation software is designed to continuously learn, provide insights and use financial impact analysis to prioritize and manage issue resolution and network function. The ability to simultaneously regulate the lifecycle, optimize the performance and customer-specific needs of each slice on the network is a key differentiator for DISH as it seeks to drive innovation benefitting the enterprise market.
DISH also plans to use advanced network slicing to offer new use cases and industry vertical opportunities that are customized to each business and customer who leverages the private hybrid 5G network. Network slices – individual pieces that comprise said network – will be managed by customers to set service levels for each device appropriate to their use of the network. For example, an autonomous vehicle can be supported by very low latency while an HD video camera can be allocated high bandwidth.
“Our 5G build is unique in that we are truly creating a ‘network of networks,’ where each enterprise can custom-tailor a network slice or group of slices to achieve their specific business needs. IBM’s orchestration solutions leverage AI, automation and machine learning to not only make these slices possible, but to ensure they adapt over time as customer use evolves,” said Marc Rouanne, chief network officer, DISH Wireless. “With IBM, DISH is combining the speed and latency advances of 5G with the customization and intelligence of the cloud, and the result will be a paradigm shift for small businesses, large enterprises and the broader wireless industry.”
“This is a seminal moment for DISH and the global telecommunications industry,” said Steve Canepa, managing director, IBM Global Communications Sector. “By utilizing IBM’s AI-powered automation and intent-driven network orchestration software, DISH can develop and deploy network offerings, applying advanced AI with IBM Watson and orchestration capabilities to help optimize network operations and performance. As a result, DISH can accelerate time to market for new innovative services powered by a secured, automated, intelligent and agile 5G network.”
IBM Global Business Services has been engaged to provide multi-vendor implementation and integration of the business support systems functions with the goal of helping to improve DISH’s customer sales and service experience for advanced, modern and highly dynamic network services. By supporting self-managed to fully managed networks, DISH will be able to offer customers the freedom to focus on other important business priorities.
Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.