Dish Network LLC said today it’s working with Amazon Web Services Inc. to create what it claims will be the world’s first entirely cloud-based 5G Open Radio Access Network, or O-RAN.

Dish, which is best known for its satellite TV services, said it will use Amazon’s fully-managed AWS Outposts service together with AWS Local Zones to support 5G network workloads at the edge.

AWS Outposts is a hybrid cloud service that delivers Amazon’s infrastructure, services, tools and application programming interfaces to any datacenter, colocation space or on-premises facility. AWS Local Zones is a deployment option that places essential services such as compute, storage and databases close to a large population, industry or information technology center.

In addition, Dish said, that Amazon will also power its fully automated Operation and Business Support Systems, which will help the company to provision and run customer’s 5G workloads and monetize the network.

An O-RAN network is one that’s based on new standards for Radio Access Network interfaces that support interoperation between networking vendors’ equipment. RAN interfaces are the software and hardware that enable mobile telephony operators to provide wireless connectivity services to the public.

The O-RAN Alliance, which is an organization pushing the concept forward, is basically to trying to transform networking standards in the same way that the Open Data Center Alliance changed the way modern data centers are built. O-RAN networks are most beneficial for network operators, as it allows them to avoid being stuck with just one company’s proprietary hardware and software.

Dish said that running its 5G O-RAN network in the cloud provides a number of benefits,. One of the most important is being able to use AWS machine learning services to predict things such as network congestion and discover any anomalous network functionality.

Also, the company said, cloud infrastructure will make it easier for Dish to implement hardware and software upgrades. Further, by using Amazon’s cloud, Dish will be able to tap into an ecosystem of cloud partners that can help with essential tasks such as automating network slicing.

There will be benefits for developers building new, 5G applications too, Dish said. For example, they’ll be able to use standard APIs to access Dish’s network services and attributes such as user equipment latency and bit rates.

Using that information, developers can then leverage other AWS services such as machine learning and analytics to help build their apps. One idea Dish suggested was a developer that builds a low-latency game that’s optimized for some users’ slower devices.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE that this partnership looks to be a big deal. He said the cloud is both a huge disruptor for traditional players and a huge enabler for the disruptors themselves.

“We see that today, with Amazon helping Dish enter a new market where traditional vendors have typically relied on their own infrastructure and typically OpenStack to manage it all,” Mueller said. “It makes perfect sense for Dish to partner with a cloud infrastructure vendor like AWS, since their infrastructure gives them not only the technological but also the commercial elasticity it needs to start a new offering. This will be a project with all eyes on it, as it has the potential to change best practices for telco call centers.”

Dish co-founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen said the partnership means that Dish will not just be a communications services provider, but also a provider of digital services too. “As a new carrier, leveraging AWS and its extensive network of partners enables us to differentiate ourselves by operating our 5G network with a high degree of automation, utilizing the talent of AWS-trained developers and helping our customers bring new 5G applications to market faster than ever before,” he said.

The network, which will be built on Amazon’s infrastructure and services, is set to go live in Las Vegas later this year ahead of a planned nationwide rollout.

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