Dish Network tackled concerns about the company’s move into mobile, with its chairman arguing the company’s planned networks could help the US lead other countries in the race to 5G.

Charlie Ergen acknowledged analysts have been wary of Dish Network’s plans to build NB-IoT and 5G networks since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) publicly questioned its progress in July 2018.

In an earnings call, he said the FCC’s decision to publicise the inquiry was “unusual”, adding it caused “unnecessary” scepticism of the operator’s ability to follow through.

Ergen talked up Dish Network as potential leader on 5G, arguing its plan to build a fresh, fully virtualised network will give it a leg up on mobile incumbents which have to slowly transition from legacy architectures.

“We want to beat China and the other parts on 5G” he said, adding he did not believe such a feat was possible “without somebody entering the marketplace with a new build” comprising the architecture to deliver all that is promised of the technology.

Though mobile players including AT&T and Verizon have begun to virtualise their networks, Ergen noted such a massive architecture shift is “difficult to do when you have 100 million customers” and will take incumbents “a long period of time” to complete.