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
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