Giving the new rich text editor a try…
Seems to me this would be more like Boost and Peter Adderton getting back together again. While I like having MobileX in the market as an option, I don’t see what value it would add to Boost. MobileX is, as of now, a small niche player best suited to low data users. There’s nothing wrong with serving that niche but it’s not a formula for giving the big 3 serious competition.
Mr. Adderton started the Boost brand in Australia then brought it to America. In the U.S., the Boost brand was originally a partnership between Mr. Adderton, Nextel and others. It was eventually acquired by Sprint as a result of Sprint’s merger with Nextel.
When T-Mobile acquired Sprint, the FCC and/or the DOJ required divestiture of Boost as a condition of approving the deal. Mr. Adderton was among those interested in acquiring the divested Boost but lost out to DISH Wireless (now a part of EchoStar). Do I believe Mr. Adderton would do a more credible job than DISH in operating the Boost brand, yes but that’s not exactly a high bar.
Of the 9 million or so subscribers DISH acquired in the Boost transaction, 2 million are gone. Further not all of the original 9 million were truly Boost subscribers as Virgin Mobile subscribers were rolled into Boost shortly before the divestiture.
Boost is a flanker brand historically marketed to youth (in the U.S. urban youth in particular), hence Mr. Adderton’s focus on action sports in marketing the brand in both the U.S. and Australia. Among DISH’s many mistakes, was a belief the Boost brand could be an effective vehicle for operating an MNO as opposed to an MVNO.
At this point, I don’t think EchoStar has the cash to turn things around nor, perhaps, do they intend to do so. Eventually, unless the FCC yanks it back, EchoStar will be free to sell its spectrum. This may have been Mr. Ergen’s true intent all along.
It’s a shame RW (and Ting Mobile) got caught up in this mess.