Dish reshuffles 5G networking team

Dave Mayo, the former T-Mobile executive in charge of building Dish Network's 5G network, is leaving his position at the company.

In a release, Dish said it's replacing Mayo with Eben Albertyn, who was previously the executive director of technology at VodafoneZiggo. The company is a joint venture between Vodafone and Liberty Global that offers cable and wireless services across the Netherlands. Albertyn will be the EVP and CTO of Dish's wireless business.

Dish also said that Marc Rouanne – a former Nokia executive who designed Dish's cloud-based open RAN 5G network – will relinquish his responsibilities to Albertyn. However, Rouanne will stay at Dish with a new job: EVP of global partnerships, where he will "focus on new key technology and go-to-market partnerships, and new enterprise business opportunities," according to Dish.

Mayo, meanwhile, will continue in a "strategic advisory" role with Dish after September.

Finally, Dish said Satish Sharma was promoted and is now the company's EVP of network deployment. Sharma previously ran Dish's Western network division.

A planned exit

According to officials inside and outside the company who spoke to Light Reading on the condition of anonymity, Mayo has been planning his exit from Dish for months.

Mayo joined Dish in 2020 – moving from Seattle to Denver – to oversee the nuts and bolts of Dish's network buildout strategy. He had previously been in charge of T-Mobile's fixed wireless and IoT operations until he left the operator in 2019. During his time at T-Mobile, Mayo led the strategic, development and financial areas for T-Mobile's network organization for two decades at the company.

Mayo's job at Dish was to organize a nationwide buildout of the company's 5G network to hit several FCC-mandated network buildout goals. As Light Reading has previously reported, Mayo engaged in a nationwide sprint to staff up Dish's networking team with hundreds of new employees – all during a pandemic that hindered travel and office meetings.

Mayo
(Source: Dish)

And Mayo managed to hit his goals, albeit with some hiccups along the way. The company's 5G network covered 20% of the US population in June of last year, and 70% of the population in June of this year.

Now, Dish officials plan to pull back on the company's 5G buildout for at least a year – thus opening a door for Mayo's exit into retirement.

"Dave was a champion of Dish's vision even before he started with us. His tireless efforts have helped put us in a unique position to revolutionize wireless connectivity in America. I couldn't be more proud of all that he has accomplished," Charlie Ergen, Dish's co-founder and chairman, said in a statement.

An exodus

However, the circumstances surrounding Mayo's exit are troubling. Other top Dish executives have also been leaving, the company is conducting some layoffs, and Dish will need to raise more money in the coming months.

Dish's original 5G networking team is now significantly different. Rouanne has a new job, and Stephen Bye – initially charged with selling Dish's 5G – left the company earlier this year. Jeff McSchooler remains on the team and is responsible for Dish's national engineering and operations.

Other Dish executives – including retail chief Stephen Stokols and COO Narayan Iyengar – have left in recent weeks.

The situation has led to plenty of speculation over Dish's financial future. The latest: a Semafor article reporting of discussions about merging Ergen's Dish with his satellite company EchoStar.

"It is not surprising that the rumors have resurfaced given the current borrowing environment, Dish's stretched balance sheet and commitment to significantly expand its greenfield 5G network by June 2025, and EchoStar's very strong balance sheet," wrote the financial analysts at Raymond James in a recent note to investors. "If an offer were to be made, we believe it would have to be significantly above the current EchoStar stock price."

Dish is expected to ramp up spending on its 5G network next year to meet its last FCC coverage mandate: covering 75% of each of its spectrum license areas with 5G by June 2025.

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