The risky new way of building mobile broadband networks

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Business

4.3 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2022

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2019, the Trump administration brokered a deal allowing TMobile to buy Sprint as long as it helped Dish Network stand up a new 5G network to keep the number of national wireless carriers at 4 and preserve competition in the mobile market. Now, in 2022, Dish’s network is slowly getting off the ground. And it’s built on a new kind of wireless technology called Open Radio Access Network, or O-RAN. Dish’s network is only the third O-RAN network in the entire world, and if O-RAN works, it will radically change how the entire wireless industry operates. I have wanted to know more about O-RAN for a long time. So today, I’m talking to Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Mobile. Rakuten Mobile is a new wireless carrier in Japan, it just launched in 2020 – it’s also the world’s first Open RAN network, and Tareq basically pushed this whole concept into existence. I really wanted to know if ORAN is going to work, and how Tareq managed to make it happen in such a traditional industry. So we got into it – like, really into it. Links: Rakuten Rakuten Edge Cloud "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" Rakuten Group to Acquire Mobile Industry Innovator Altiostar Gadgets 360 Massive MIMO Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23061797 Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Creighton DeSimone and Jackie McDermott and it was edited by Callie Wright. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Sr Audio Director is Andrew Marino. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters. And our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Decoder. I'm Eli Patel, editor in chief of the Verge and Decoder
0:06.3	is my show about big ideas and other problems.
0:09.5	Okay, here is the quick version of a very long backstory. In 2019, the Trump administration
0:15.5	brokered a deal allowing T-Mobile to buy Sprint. As long as it helped Dish Network stand
0:21.2	up a new 5G network to keep the number of national wireless carriers at 4 and preserve
0:27.4	competition in the mobile market. You can say a lot about the deal, but it happened.
0:31.9	And now in 2022, Dish is Network, which is called Project Genofysus, that's a real name,
0:37.0	is slowly getting off the ground. And it's built on a new kind of wireless technology called
0:41.9	Open Radio Access Network, or O-Ren. Dish is Network is only the third O-Ren network in
0:47.7	the entire world. And if O-Ren works, it will radically change how the entire wireless industry
0:53.3	operates. I have wanted to know more about O-Ren for a long time.
0:57.3	So today, I'm talking to Tarrick Emay, CEO of Rakuten Mobile. Rakuten Mobile is a new
1:02.9	wireless carrier in Japan. It just launched in 2020. It's also the world's first O-Ren
1:08.4	network. And Tarrick basically pushed this whole concept into existence. Now, Tarrick has
1:14.0	a long history in the mobile business. He's an engineer who has run engineering groups
1:17.8	at T-Mobile and Lawway, which provides a lot of equipment to the wireless industry. And
1:21.9	importantly, he helped launch the Reliance Geo Network in India in 2016, which quickly
1:27.0	became the dominant Indian wireless carrier by offering low-cost 4G LTE service. Now,
1:33.7	he's doing it again with Rakuten Mobile, and the bet he's making is on O-Ren. Here's
1:38.5	the deal with O-Ren. Right now, a wireless carrier like AT&T or Verizon runs its network on proprietary
1:44.6	hardware from vendors like Nokia, Perix and CTE in Lawway. There's the X4. You buy their
1:50.0	proprietary base stations, they run their proprietary software, and all of that forms a Radio
	...

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