Dish claims 35 Mbit/s over 5G, but network-monitoring firms stay mum

Opensignal and Ookla, two top wireless network-monitoring companies, said they currently have no plans to publicly report on Dish Network's 5G speeds anytime soon.

"Dish will start to be showcased if and when they become a 'top provider,' which also requires a 3 percent sample share," wrote an Ookla representative in response to questions from Light Reading. "Our content and data science team are always looking at our data to see what story there is for us to accurately and reliably tell. Our team has determined that when it comes to Dish, if we currently included them in our analyses at this time, while informed, our statements would still be speculation."

An Ookla representative further explained that the company only reports on providers with at least a 3 percent share "to ensure that most consumers in the area actually have access to the provider to qualify it as the fastest, most consistent or having the best coverage."

Ookla, which offers the popular Speedtest app, recently released its second quarter 2023 data for the US market, showing that T-Mobile was the fastest top mobile operator in the country with a median download speed of 164.76 Mbit/s. The firm's findings stem from data obtained via apps on mobile users' smartphones.

Ookla's position is somewhat noteworthy considering Stephen Bye – previously a top Dish executive – is now in charge of the company's Connectivity division.

Opensignal – another US network-monitoring firm – said it too has no plans to report on Dish's new 5G network. A company representative explained that Opensignal is still "pretty far away from having a big enough sample of Dish users to accurately compare and contrast with other operators." The company couldn't say when that situation might change.

Opensignal's recent report on the US market showed that T-Mobile's 5G download speeds reached 195.5 Mbit/s, which the firm said was twice as fast as Verizon's speeds and 2.4 times as fast as those from AT&T.

Early tests of Dish's 5G network last year showed inconsistent speeds.

Dish's own testing

The comments are noteworthy considering Dish said it is conducting its own drive tests of its new 5G network, in order to confirm to the FCC that it is meeting its federal network-buildout requirements. Per its 2019 agreement with T-Mobile and the US Department of Justice, Dish is required to cover 70% of the US population with 5G download speeds of at least 35 Mbit/s. The company said last month it met that requirement.

"As provided in the Order, this element of the Nationwide 5G Deployment Commitment will be verified by a drive test," Dish told the FCC last month. "The drive test will utilize the Motorola Edge Plus 2023 and an industry-standard methodology mutually agreed to by Dish and the [FCC Wireless] Bureau."

Dish is working to expand its operations in the US wireless industry. The latest: Online retailing giant Amazon said it will enter the postpaid wireless industry in the US by selling services from Boost Infinite, a new wireless brand from Dish.

However, it's not clear which wireless network Amazon's offer will use; company officials declined to answer questions on the topic. Dish is in the midst of building its own 5G network, but there are only a handful of phones that can use that network. As a result, Dish has MVNO agreements with both AT&T and T-Mobile. According to one person familiar with the companies' plans, Amazon's Boost Infinite offering currently uses the T-Mobile network.

On its Project Genesis website for its own open RAN 5G network, Dish notes that it does not have any data caps. "This is a truly unlimited data plan, of course, subject to our terms and conditions (no BitTorrent, please)," the company wrote.

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— Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading | @mikeddano