Matrixx scores Dish 5G BSS deal

Disruptive US BSS vendor Matrixx has managed to jump aboard the Dish train after its converged charging system (CCS) was chosen to monetize its greenfield 5G network.

Billed as the US’s first Open RAN-compliant 5G network, Dish is attempting a similar feat to Rakuten in Japan, by building a state-of-the-art 5G network from the ground up. In theory this means no legacy baggage to hold it back from deploying the very latest in cloud-native, virtualized cleverness, and that includes all the rest of the plumbing.

This is where companies like Matrixx, which have made digital transformation and that sort of thing their core strategy, come in. There is even talk of an ‘API-first architecture’, which sounds pretty cloud-native from where we’re standing. The resulting billing platform should be nice and dynamic and allow for the kind of product innovation operators have been told they need to do for ages.

“Matrixx’s solution will help unlock the intrinsic value of our 5G network by scaling on demand and enabling dynamic pricing for network slices and other services,” said Atilla Tinic, Dish CIO. “We are proud to have a partner with the proven ability to deliver a modern CCS solution for 5G that will give us the commercial and operational agility to constantly iterate our offerings and grow our wireless business.”

“Dish is poised to change the telco landscape in the US for the better, and we are thrilled to be partnering with them on their journey,” said Glo Gordon, Matrixx CEO. “With our unique platform, Matrixx will provide Dish with a powerful competitive advantage in both the offerings they bring to market and the superior experience they deliver to their customers.”

It remains to be seen what kind of network Dish will serve up and how successful it will be in taking subscribers from what now is the big three. But for a relatively small vendor like Matrixx to get a piece of the action seems like an unconditional positive for them.