Does FCC hope EchoStar sells its spectrum to Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T?
EchoStar’s Boost Mobile has not really proven itself yet to be the fourth big U.S. wireless carrier that the FCC hoped it would be when it allowed Dish Networks to buy it, clearing the way for T-Mobile to buy Sprint. When the Dish ran away with the spoon Boost on July 1, 2020, the latter had 9 million mobile subscribers. That figure has since been whittled down to 7.36 million subscribers as of the end of this past June for an 18.2% decline.
Boost might be turning things around after adding net mobile subscribers for the last three quarters consecutively. For the fourth quarter of 2024, Boost Mobile added 90,000 net subscribers. The following quarter, Boost reported 150,000 net subscribers and tacked on an additional 85,000 net subscribers during the second quarter of 2025. For the three quarters, Boost added 325,000 net subscribers, which isn’t too shabby.
Back in July, there were some rumblings about EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen combining Boost Mobile with MVNO MobileX. There is a connection between MobileX and Boost Mobile, as one of the founders of the original Boost Mobile in the United States was MobileX CEO Peter Adderton. But so far, there seem to be no comments from anyone who might be involved in such a deal.
