- The Boost Mobile business has struggled ever since Dish Network/EchoStar acquired it in 2020
- A source tells Fierce that EchoStar is looking to combine Boost with an MVNO run by the original founder of Boost Mobile
- A tie-up between Boost Mobile and Verizon MVNO MobileX could be in the works
EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen may be angling to combine Boost Mobile with the business of one of the original founders of Boost, MobileX.
That’s what Fierce heard from a source with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Specifics of how a deal might unfold are not known.
EchoStar, parent company of Boost Mobile, didn’t respond to a request for comment. Through a spokesperson, MobileX CEO Peter Adderton declined to comment.
Adderton is one of the founders of the original Boost Mobile, which was a successful, edgy U.S. brand targeting urban youth and action sports fans before it was sold to Nextel Communications in 2003. Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005.
When T-Mobile was in the process of acquiring Sprint in 2020, the U.S. government decided to set up a fourth national wireless carrier via Dish Network, which acquired Boost Mobile as part of that remedy. Dish also was then tasked with creating its own 5G network, which it did using open RAN technology. Boost is now under the EchoStar umbrella.
But Boost Mobile has struggled under the Dish/EchoStar management, starting with the shutdown of Sprint’s CDMA network, which Ergen in 2021 said was premature and part of T-Mobile’s Grinch-like behavior. Things spiraled down from there, primarily due to what analysts describe as missteps in the marketing and sales departments versus network.
Boost Mobile had about 9 million subscribers when Dish acquired it in 2020. Currently, it has about 7 million customers.
EchoStar’s “dark cloud”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened two inquiries into EchoStar’s business, one related to its 5G network buildout obligations and another on its use of 2 GHz/AWS-4 spectrum licenses. These inquiries created a “dark cloud” of uncertainty over EchoStar, so much so that it contemplated bankruptcy.
In a May 9, 2025, letter to Ergen that sparked the inquiries, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr noted there are fewer Boost Mobile subscribers than when EchoStar acquired the company five years ago.
A tie-up between Boost Mobile and MobileX could be an attempt to resuscitate EchoStar’s mobile business. MobileX’s prepaid wireless service is sold in thousands of Walmart stores across the country. Its emphasis is on using AI to determine how much data a subscriber actually needs and selling it on pay-as-you-go pricing basis.
Adderton has been a vocal critic of the Dish’s handling of Boost Mobile and it’s unclear how his MobileX firm would combine with that of Boost Mobile. MobileX is an MVNO using Verizon’s network and the contractual terms of that venture are unknown.
Boost prepaid vs. postpaid
The branding know-how that Adderton would bring to Boost Mobile would be a tremendous asset, said Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7 Research. In the early 2000s, Adderton took a brand that he built out of nothing and created a top urban prepaid brand that survives very well in customers’ memories to this day, Moore said.
“My largest criticism of Boost is the fact it’s a prepaid carrier that is pretending to be a postpaid carrier,” he told Fierce.
To play successfully in the U.S. as a nationwide carrier, they need more than 100 million connections and Boost is nowhere near that size. But it could get scale by leasing network access to cable companies, MVNOs and IoT companies, he said.
Another way to gain scale: build a robust postpaid presence. The stores that Boost currently operates are in places that best serve consumers of prepaid services. “They say they have postpaid offerings now, but those are not adequately communicated to the audience and their retail store presence is not in areas where they’re able to serve a substantial postpaid base,” Moore said.
“It is possible to gain share in postpaid and Charter and Comcast have shown how that can be done,” he added.
This article was updated with commentary from Wave7 Research.
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