Dish Network has completed a $ 1.4 billion acquisition of Boost Mobile, a former Sprint subsidiary that resells prepaid mobile service.
After years of buying spectrum but never providing service, Dish is finally a mobile phone provider, albeit as a reseller that does not yet operate its own network. Dish was able to buy Boost as part of the merger deal in which the Justice Department allowed T-Mobile to buy Sprint. The Justice Department required T-Mobile and Sprint to sell Dish the prepaid business, as well as spectrum licenses and wholesale access to the combined T-Mobile / Sprint network. Prepaid selling and wholesale access are intended to allow Dish to operate a wireless business as a network reseller while building its own 5G network that could eventually make it the fourth largest wireless provider.
“With this purchase, Dish officially enters the wireless retail market, serving more than nine million customers,” Dish said in a press release today. Starting tomorrow, Dish said its subsidiary Boost will offer a “$ hrink-It! Plan, which starts at $ 45 for 15GB, reduces monthly customer fees by $ 5 after three on-time payments and an additional $ 5 after six payments on time. ” Boost will also “offer a $ 35 10GB plan that includes unlimited calling and texting,” Dish said.
Before the T-Mobile / Sprint merger, Boost used the Sprint network to provide wireless service. Under the new configuration, “Boost has started and will continue to activate customers with a compatible device on the new T-Mobile network, where customers will receive a stronger signal, faster speeds and more coverage,” Dish said. T-Mobile said the deal also gives Boost customers access to “roaming in certain areas until Dish’s 5G network is built.”
Dish said it is “continuous[ing] provider selection “for the 5G network you plan to build as you have reached agreements with” Fujitsu for radio units and Altiostar and Mavenir for cloud-native Open RAN software. “Dish is also a satellite television provider with approximately 9 million video subscribers, and is the owner of the online service Sling TV.
The Justice Department, which played an active role in facilitating divestments, today applauded the Dish / Boost deal in an unusual press release titled “The Justice Department Congratulates T-Mobile and Dish for Closing the Boost Divestment ” Although the T-Mobile / Sprint merger reduced the US wireless market from four major carriers to three, Justice Department antitrust chief Makan Delrahim said the sale of Boost “is a significant milestone in the completion of the Justice Department remedy, which is designed to strengthen competition for high-quality 5G and benefits American consumers across the country. “
As we’ve written previously, government-imposed conditions require Dish to cover 70 percent of the US population with 5G by June 2023. That could leave 100 million Americans without the option of a fourth operator. if Dish doesn’t go much further than that. 70 percent requirement. Dish also obtained approval from the Federal Communications Commission to build a 4G network in 2012, but never did.
