DISH buys Boost Mobile for $1.4 billion; advances to build America's first standalone 5G network

Marking a significant buyout in the American telecom industry amidst the pandemic is worth a mention. DISH has announced the completion of its $1.4 billion-acquisition of Boost Mobile.

With this purchase, DISH officially enters the retail wireless market, serving more than nine million customers in America.

John Swieringa, who serves as group president, retail wireless and COO, DISH, will lead Boost Mobile.

Erik Carlson, President and CEO, DISH regards this purchase as an important milestone in his company's evolution as a connectivity establishment. "It positions us well as we continue to build out the first virtualized, standalone 5G network in America," says Carlson.

Carlson revealed that the company will continue to utilize the Boost brand and also unveiled the new Boost logo while announcing the acquisition.

"Boost is uniquely positioned to disrupt this industry. Our passionate team, from employees to retail associates to local business owners, is ready to compete," said John Swieringa.

Boost says it has begun and will continue to activate customers with a compatible device onto the new T-Mobile network, where customers will receive a stronger signal, faster speeds, and more coverage.

In July 2019, DISH announced a series of agreements the company reached with the DOJ and FCC as part of the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. DISH will have access to the new T-Mobile network for seven years, including the ability to serve DISH customers between new T-Mobile's nationwide network and DISH's forthcoming standalone 5G network, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S.

"The FCC and DOJ have shown continued leadership in advancing the nation's 5G wireless future, and thanks to their efforts, DISH is able to focus our resources on building the only 5G network in the U.S. based on Open RAN architecture, completely from the ground up," said Carlson.

DISH also announced that it continues to make progress on its 5G network deployment and has recently announced the selection of Fujitsu for radio units and Altiostar and Mavenir for cloud-native, Open RAN software.