US newcomer Dish Wireless launched the first commercial market of its highly anticipated but much delayed greenfield 5G network in Las Vegas today (4 May), with more than 120 cities to follow by June.

A representative from Dish Wireless told Mobile World Live (MWL) the service is available across nearly all of the Las Vegas city area as well as nearby city Henderson.

The service costs $30 per month and includes uncapped data, talk and text services.

Dish Wireless is starting out with a single phone, the Motorola 5G Edge+ retailing at $899, but plans to offer additional devices.

A map on the Project Genesis website (the name by which Dish Wireless refers to its new service) shows some of the cities where the service is set to launch, including Forth Worth, Houston and Dallas, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Salt Lake City, and Stockton, California.

Delays
Dish Wireless first stated its 5G service would be available in 2020 and then revised the deadline to Q1 2021.

In August 2021 it announced plans for a beta trial. At the same time, Charlie Ergen, chair of the operator’s parent Dish Network, stated services could be available to delegates attending CES 2022 in January.

Dish Wireless is on a deadline with the US government to cover 20 per cent of the country’s population with 5G by 14 June.

The Dish Wireless representative told MWL it expects to meet the goal, along with having the service live in 120 markets across the US.

On the company’s fourth quarter earnings call in February, Dish Network president and CEO Erik Carlson expressed confidence the operator would hit the target.

At the time he noted Dish Wireless had more than 25 major metro markets ready to be deployed before the deadline, including around 100 smaller cities.

Earlier this week Dish Network revealed Samsung is supplying it 5G and RAN products, vRAN software and a variety of O-RAN Alliance-compliant radio units including Massive MIMO.

Dish Network is scheduled to issue Q1 2022 figures on 6 May, with an investor day set to take place in Las Vegas on 10 May.