US satellite TV giant DISH has announced that it completed its USD1.4 billion acquisition of Boost Mobile on 1 July. With this purchase, DISH officially enters the retail wireless market, serving more than nine million customers. The company will continue to utilise the Boost brand – which was first introduced in June 2001 – and has unveiled the new logo. Boost has begun, and will continue, to migrate customers with a compatible device from the Sprint network onto the T-Mobile US network, where it says customers will receive a stronger signal, faster speeds and enhanced coverage.
John Swieringa, the executive who will lead Boost Mobile, has confirmed that his first move is to revive the cellco’s popular ‘$hrink-It!’ plan, which rewards customers with a ‘the longer you stay, the less you pay’ tariff. The plan, which was available to new Boost Mobile customers until July 2014, starts at USD45 for 15GB of data, and reduces customers’ monthly rates by USD5 after three on-time payments, and by an additional USD5 after six total on-time payments.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, DISH Network’s USD1.4 billion acquisition of Sprint sub-brand Boost Mobile was one of the pre-conditions of the recent merger between Sprint and larger rival T-Mobile US. The Boost deal was agreed in July 2019 alongside a USD3.6 billion sale of 800MHz Sprint spectrum. DISH expects to transition from an MVNO to an MNO by 2022.