Dish Wireless lit vRAN sites for its 5G network using Samsung equipment, as the US operator advanced work to meet its next government-mandated deployment deadline.

Samsung supplied Dish Wireless with 24,000 radios and related software as part of a $1 billion deal it struck with the operator in May 2022.

A Dish Wireless representative told Mobile World Live it integrated the vRAN software across Samsung and Fujitsu radios.

Samsung also supplied virtualised distributed and central units, and built new dual-band and tri-band radios for the operator.

The companies cited the potential to provide new services to enterprises moving forward.

Samsung has emerged as a 5G rival to leading equipment vendors Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE.

Dish Network is required to cover 70 per cent of the US population with its 5G network by June.

In January it revealed it had commenced construction on more than 15,000 5G sites which would cover 60 per cent of the population.