Dish has further expanded Voice Over New Radio (VoNR) capability, also known as 5G voice, for its Boost prepaid mobile offering. The Boost Wireless 5G voice capability is now available to more than 200 million people in the United States, according to Dish.
VoNR runs over a standalone 5G core network that is not shared with earlier-generation technology. From the consumer point of view, one of the advantages of VoNR is that it supports faster call set-up times.
Those who want to use the VoNR service must have compatible smart phones. These include the iPhone 15, the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Motorola’s razr.
“At Dish, we firmly believe in the transformative power of communication, and as the fourth nationwide wireless network, we are bringing competition to the wireless industry and more choice to U.S. consumers,” John Swieringa, EchoStar’s president of technology and COO, said in a press release.
The number of people to whom Boost 5G voice is available has nearly tripled since June 2023, when the capability was available to 70 million people.
Dish initially launched 5G voice for its Dish postpaid wireless service in 2022.
One of the reasons Dish has been able to take the lead in deploying technologies such as 5G voice is that the company had no legacy infrastructure in place when it set out to launch its wireless business several years ago.
Joan Engebretson contributed to this report
