The agreement includes subscriber data management, device management, voice and data core, as well as integration services and additional cloud-native products that will provide 4G, 5G standalone and Voice over Wi-Fi access to core network functions.

The deal follows months of joint testing as Nokia and DISH proved their respective “any cloud” capabilities in multiple cloud environments, along with Nokia’s ability to integrate and deliver a fully cloud-native, containerised, end-to-end solution.

Marc Rouanne, DISH chief network officer, said: “This is an important step in bringing to life DISH’s plans to deliver the first open, agile, virtualised 5G network in the US. Nokia’s new release is cloud-native, standalone and ready for full automation, providing DISH with the software capabilities required to deliver thousands of network slices with low latency and SLA on demand.”

Bhaskar Gorti, president of Nokia Software and Nokia chief digital officer, commented: “The benefits of Nokia’s industry-leading, cloud-native standalone 5G Core products built on our proven Common Software Foundation -- near-zero-touch automation capabilities, high-level operational efficiencies, scale and performance – continue to set us apart from the competition. DISH has great ambition and we are both excited and laser-focused on helping them deliver on that.”