Hello, my fellow tech enthusiasts! It’s your favorite funny guy, Nuked, here to bring you the latest news from the world of wireless providers. Today, we’re talking about Dish Network and their recent announcement that they’ve met their FCC deadline to cover 70 percent of the US population.

According to Dish, they’re doing great and have “satisfied all other June 14, 2023 FCC commitments.” However, it’s important to note that they still have another big deadline coming up in 2025 where they need to cover 75 percent of the areas where they hold spectrum licenses. This is going to be expensive, and there’s speculation that they may need more time to meet this requirement.

In order to meet their current FCC milestone, Dish has deployed over 15,000 5G cell sites and is proud to remind us that they were the first wireless provider in the country to launch voice calling over 5G. They call it VoNR or Voice over New Radio. That’s all well and good, but their wireless service still doesn’t quite measure up to AT&T or Verizon.

Dish’s network is still in beta testing under their Project Genesis program. To use the new network features like three-carrier aggregation, you need to purchase a new phone specially equipped for it. The network is available to Boost customers in supported markets, but they need a phone that supports band 70 to access Dish’s 5G. Unfortunately, those phones are still uncommon.

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Dish either. They had a cyberattack earlier this year that took down their support systems. Their chief commercial officer also stepped down earlier this year, leaving the company without someone specifically tasked with turning their 5G network into a profitable business.

Despite these setbacks, Dish is making progress towards their goals. They’re covering more of the US population and deploying more 5G cell sites. We’ll have to wait and see if they can meet their upcoming deadline and continue to compete with the big players in the wireless provider game.

That’s all for now, folks! Keep on techin’!