This discussion was created from comments split from: T-Mobile Rumored to Be Buying Mint Mobile.
Any chance someone might buy out RW from Dish? It seems like Dish doesn’t want or need RW – they have Boost and TIng…
Hi @NancyM,
I took the liberty of splitting your comment to its own topic.
It’s unlikely, at best, the RW brand will be sold to anyone else. And, how much would it matter anyway? DISH corporate has finished off anything that made the brand unique. The proprietary technology is gone as is the old support model.
With the benefit of hindsight, I’ll make the case the beginning of the end for the RW brand as we knew it was when Bandwidth lost interest and spun RW out on its own in December of 2016. In 2017, RW launched Republic Anywhere then started ignoring it in 2018 once Relay was launched. Later, Extend Home was launched with some fanfare and promises of future enhancements that never happened.
When RW was spun out, Bandwidth capitalized the new Republic Wireless, Inc. with $30 million. As best as I’m able to tell without access to the books, most of that went to growing Relay. In March of 2021, Republic Wireless, Inc. saw an opportunity to acquire additional capital for Relay by selling the RW brand (and us) to DISH. The company once known as Republic Wireless, Inc. is now known as Relay, Inc. It’s entirely possible if I had access to the books, I would have made the same business decision. Without knowing the revenue (and more to the point the profit margin) of the Relay business unit vs. that of the RW business unit, I can’t say definitively. Anyway, those with that access made the decision Relay not RW was their future.
Fortunately, if RW by DISH isn’t working out, there are other worthwhile mobile service providers with which to choose doing business. If I’m not mistaken, you have a secondary phone with Tello. Tello is a quality service provider. If you need or want them to be, I see no reason you couldn’t use them for primary service. I also like Mobi, am beta testing MobileX and know others happy with US Mobile. Both Tello and US Mobile get favorable reviews (as RW once did) on Trustpilot.
I guess what I’m trying to say is replacing RW as one’s service provider isn’t terribly difficult. There are good options in the market some of which cost less than RW (by DISH or otherwise). What none of those options offer is anything like RW’s old Community. And, that’s why the RW Users Community was started. Conversations surrounding phones, phone service and other technology don’t require use of the same service provider though having that common bond was nice.
Finally, though we are understandably focused on the future (or lack thereof) of the RW brand, Ting Mobile’s future isn’t secure either. DISH licensed but did not purchase the Ting Mobile brand. For now, DISH is all in on what its President and COO called the “iconic” Boost brand by bringing the Boost brand to more folks via Boost Infinite. Time will tell whether DISH will be any more successful with Boost Infinite than they have been with their other wireless adventures. Apple, Coca-Cola, Macy’s and Nike are examples of iconic brands. Boost is not even close to being an iconic brand.
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