FCC might want Boost Mobile to sell its spectrum and leave the industry

Boost Mobile is turning things around, but it might be too late to save it

Boost might be turning things around after adding net mobile subscribers for the last three quarters consecutively. For the fourth quarter of 2024, Boost Mobile added 90,000 net subscribers. The following quarter, Boost reported 150,000 net subscribers and tacked on an additional 85,000 net subscribers during the second quarter of 2025. For the three quarters, Boost added 325,000 net subscribers, which isn’t too shabby.

Boost Mobile is under attack by the FCC. | Image credit-Boost Mobile

Back in July, there were some rumblings about EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen combining Boost Mobile with MVNO MobileX. There is a connection between MobileX and Boost Mobile, as one of the founders of the original Boost Mobile in the United States was MobileX CEO Peter Adderton. But so far, there seem to be no comments from anyone who might be involved in such a deal.

Adderton told Fierce, “You can’t come out and say the MVNOs are the fourth network and use that as your reasoning for potentially killing off the fourth network and then have the carriers become the judge, the jury, and the executioner when it comes to the wholesale deal.” He says that there needs to be regulation with MVNO owners forced to obtain licenses, giving them a valuation similar to licenses for spectrum. If you have a license to be an MVNO, that should have some value. To me, the landscape has to change,” he said.

FCC’s Carr might want EchoStar to sell all of its spectrum to the Big 3 and leave the mobile industry

Blair Levin, an analyst at New Street Research, a firm that provides equity and debt research to the global Technology, Media, and Telecommunications industries, said that there could be an agreement between EchoStar and the FCC that results in the former selling off some spectrum while keeping enough licenses to allow it to operate as a fourth facilities-based network.