EchoStar reportedly considers a deal with a Verizon MVNO to keep Boost alive

Phone Arena

2 days ago

Having Boost Mobile replace Sprint as the nation's fourth-largest carrier was done to prevent consumers from having to pay higher prices for wireless service. Without that fourth major firm offering service, the remaining three can hike their prices without having that fourth competitor come in with lower prices. This is why the FCC demanded that a replacement for Sprint be chosen before it agreed to allow T-Mobile to close on the $26 billion transaction. It was no secret that Dish Network co-founder and current EchoStar Chairman Charles Ergen had long wanted to own a carrier, and the FCC was giving him an opportunity to make his dream come true. So Dish bought Boost, but customers weren't exactly rushing through the front doors. Dish started with the 9.3 million customers it acquired from Boost Mobile. During the first quarter of 2022, for example, Dish reported a net loss of 363,000 customers, leaving it with 8.5 million subscribers. The carrier's firm rate rose to 5,11% from 4.44% year-over-year.
Boost has been criticized for being a prepaid carrier pretending to be a postpaid carrier. | Image credit-Unknown
On the last day of 2023, EchoStar acquired Dish Network, and things have continued to go south for Boost Mobile, still owned by Dish, which is now an EchoStar subsidiary. As for Q1 2025, Boost Mobile had 7.2 million customers remaining. That means it had lost 22.6% of its customers since opening its doors for business.
This past Friday, a report said that Ergen might be looking to start a turnaround for Boost by combining it with MobileX. That's the business run by CEO Peter Adderton, who was one of the founders of Boost Mobile. The latter was successful and was subsequently sold to Nextel in 2003. At the time, Boost was adding 40,000 net new subscribers each month. Two years later, Sprint acquired Nextel which is how Sprint ended up with Boost Mobile before it sold to Dish Networks on July 1, 2020. FCC Commissioner Brandon Carr has been after EchoStar over two issues. One is whether the 5G build-out requirements that the FCC placed on Dish when it acquired Boost were being met by EchoStar, and the other issue is whether EchoStar is using the 2GHz airwaves that it has. It seems that SpaceX wants that spectrum for its satellite to cellphone service because it is superior to the airwaves that it is currently using. EchoStar avoided a bankruptcy filing by making a $500 million interest payment on Debt near the end of June. Could a combination of MobileX and EchoStar help the latter turn around? The former uses AI to determine how much data a subscriber might need and sells it on a pay-as-you-go basis in many Walmart stores. MobileX is an MVNO that uses Verizon's wireless network. Adderton, the MobileX CEO who helped found Boost has criticized the Boost Mobile purchase by Dish.
Wave7 Research principal Jeff Moore told Fierce Wireless, "My largest criticism of Boost is the fact it's a prepaid carrier that is pretending to be a postpaid carrier." He believes that Boost needs to build a postpaid presence, seeing that most of its stores are in areas where they serve prepaid customers. Moore says that Boost needs to promote its postpaid service and build more postpaid stores. Their Boost Infinite Access for iPhone and Infinite Access for Galaxy plans cost $65 a month and give you a new iPhone or Galaxy each year. While $65 per month is the cost for the base iPhone and Galaxy phone each year, you can pay more to select one of the pricier models. The plan also comes with talk, text, and data (including 30GB of premium data), global talk and text, and more. And every year, you get a new iPhone or Galaxy handset.
If I ran Boost (and you know where to reach me guys!), I would promote the hell out of the Infinite Access plans. Getting a new iPhone or Galaxy smartphone each year should be a powerful incentive for consumers to become Boost customers.