Dish is buying Republic Wireless to help boost the launch of its 5G network

Dish is putting all its pieces into place for a 5G rollout this year.

What you need to know

• Dish announced this week that it’s acquiring Republic Wireless for an undisclosed amount.
• The Relay division of Republic Wireless will continue to operate independently as a 5G customer.
• Dish Wireless is planning to launch its 5G network later this year.

Dish has been on a spending spree lately as it works to build up its street cred as a mobile network. After the company snatched up Boost Mobile as a prerequisite to T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint, Dish went ahead and purchased Ting Mobile in a deal that will help with the management of its wireless expansion. This time around, Dish has announced this week that it’s acquiring Republic Wireless.

As we continue to grow our retail wireless business, Republic broadens our existing customer base and positions us to deliver even more value to the market, expanding our portfolio of mobile solutions to meet a variety of customer needs. We look forward to welcoming Republic customers to the DISH family.

As part of the deal, Dish will now be the provider for Republic Wireless’ roughly 200,000 customers. They should notice very little difference, as the MVNO operated using the excellent T-Mobile 5G network, the same that Dish is using as part of the Sprint merger deal. Dish has also stated that the division that operates the Republic Relay will continue as on as its own separate company and as a customer of Dish’s 5G network.

As far as Dish’s 5G rollout, this is very much a move to boost its network as it prepares to launch later this year. The company also participated in the recent spectrum auction against all the best wireless carriers in the U.S., putting down $2.5 billion towards its 5G network. Dish also announced last year that it’s working with Qualcomm to help launch its unique cloud-native 5G network.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.