Dish Network promises dynamic 5G pricing with Matrixx

Dish joins the likes of Verizon and Vodafone in partnering with Matrixx for billing, and will use the company to start 'dynamically changing prices throughout the day.'

Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies

August 18, 2020

2 Min Read
Dish Network promises dynamic 5G pricing with Matrixx

Dish Network said it will use technology from Matrixx Software to develop rate plans for its planned 5G network.

"Matrixx's solution will help unlock the intrinsic value of our 5G network by scaling on demand and enabling dynamic pricing for network slices and other services," said Atilla Tinic, Dish's chief information officer, in a release from the company. "We are proud to have a partner with the proven ability to deliver a modern CCS [converged charging system] solution for 5G that will give us the commercial and operational agility to constantly iterate our offerings and grow our wireless business."

Dish explained that it will use artificial intelligence and software from Matrixx to determine how much network capacity it has so that it can start "dynamically changing prices throughout the day."

"Matrixx's cloud native, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline then automates pricing updates," Dish noted in a release.

Thus, Dish could leverage the kind of "surge pricing" that companies like Uber have tested in the consumer market, whereby rates rise as usage increases. However, Dish isn't the first company to discuss that kind of pricing in a telecom network; for example, startup BandwidthX has long touted a similar approach to network capacity and pricing.

Matrixx is the newest vendor for Dish's planned 5G network. Dish has set up a steady stream of vendor announcements in recent weeks ranging from Mavenir to Fujitsu, Altiostar and VMware.

Dish joins the likes of Verizon's Visible, Starhub and Vodafone in using software from Matrixx.

However, Dish's agreement with Matrixx may be closely watched considering Japan's Rakuten – a company that Dish is working to emulate – recently acquired Innoeye for its operations support system (OSS) offerings. As Omdia analyst James Crawshaw noted, Rakuten is working with Tech Mahindra for its BSS (business support systems), which is similar to what Matrixx supplying to Dish.

Based on its deal with T-Mobile and the US Department of Justice, Dish is on the hook to cover 20% of the US population by June 2022 with 5G and 70% of the population starting in June 2023.

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

About the Author

Mike Dano

Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies, Light Reading

Mike Dano is Light Reading's Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies. Mike can be reached at [email protected], @mikeddano or on LinkedIn.

Based in Denver, Mike has covered the wireless industry as a journalist for almost two decades, first at RCR Wireless News and then at FierceWireless and recalls once writing a story about the transition from black and white to color screens on cell phones.

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