Dish on Track to Sell 5G Wireless Service Starting Next Quarter

Dish Network Corp.’s long-anticipated plan to become a major mobile-phone carrier --alongside the likes of Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. -- is taking shape.

Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen said Friday that his company would begin offering 5G service in “some preliminary small markets in the first quarter.” The rollout will expand to at least one major city in the third quarter of 2021, he said.

The satellite-TV provider has been planning this move for years. It scooped up a massive swath of airwaves and hammered out a deal with T-Mobile US Inc. last year that was meant to ...