For this vignette of a recent episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, part of the 5G Factor series, analysts Ron Westfall and Shelly Kramer examine DISH Network’s selection of IBM to help automate what it is promoting as the first greenfield cloud-native 5G network in the United States.

Their conversation focused on:

• IBM’ crucial role in providing the intent-based orchestration and AI-enabled automation capabilities across DISH’s multi-vendor and multi-layer cloud native 5G network, now consisting of at least 30 named suppliers.
• The DISH collaboration with IBM accentuates that AI-powered automation and network orchestration software and services is essential to enabling 5G network orchestration and key 5G capabilities such as network slicing.
• Through IBM’s Cloud Pak for Network Automation solution, DISH aims to use intent-based orchestration capabilities to efficiently synthesize hardware and software resources that enable the network slicing that is key to the creation and delivery of new services such as use case specific network slices.
• Why IBM’s AI and orchestration assets are so well-suited for fulfilling the major interworking and integration challenges of the DISH cloud-native 5G network architecture and deployment.

Ron and Shelly see the DISH deal as the CSP validation needed to boost IBM’s overall 5G ecosystem credentials and fulfilling customer-specific and vertical-specific needs through AI, orchestration, and network slicing innovation.