After months of speculation and some small delays, Boost Mobile will be purchased by DISH Network.
What has been months in the making will finally come to its inevitable conclusion, the deal for DISH to purchase Boost Mobile will be finalized at the beginning of July. Terms are still to be announced but this deal comes after months of the two sides smoothing out the details including the possibility of Boost Mobile customers having phones which are capable of working on T-Mobile’s network.
Boost Mobile’s pay-as-you-go model was part of the Sprint brand. When T-Mobile and Sprint decided to merge, the government stepped in and denied the motion to help prevent a monopolized industry for consumers. As part of the terms to satisfy the government and create the necessary path in which the merger could reach its conclusion, Sprint agreed to sell Boost Mobile to DISH to help maintain a fourth major wireless carrier for customers.
The Justice Department’s antitrust chief Makan Delrahim helped oversee the deal with Boost’s purchase price looking to be $1.4 billion. As DISH builds its 5G network, customers should expect to have access to T-Mobile’s network over the next seven years. Braxton Carter, the CFO of T-Mobile, signed the deal and will also be retiring on July 1st as Peter Osvaldik, T-Mobile’s chief accounting officer is in line to fill the role.
According to CNET, DISH will also purchase $3.6 billion worth of Sprint’s 800 MHz spectrum from T-Mobile. DISH has been purchasing spectrum for years without using it as companies such as Verizon continue to monitor the company’s activities. DISH’s ambitious goals to compete in the wireless marketplace will gain a lot of traction with the purchase of Boost Mobile, although its standalone 5G network will take time. Over the next several years, with a government mandate that DISH must cover 70% of the U.S. by the summer of 2023, America’s newest major wireless provider will work to create a fast, reliable network city-by-city for 5G devices.
Source: Bloomberg