Part of the deal that T-Mobile and Sprint made with the Justice department to get its merger approved, was to divest Boost Mobile and the rest of Sprint’s prepaid business. T-Mobile and Sprint were able to rope in Dish Network to purchase Boost Mobile (which will also include Virgin Mobile and Sprint Prepaid).
After the deal between T-Mobile and Sprint was finalized, we were waiting for Dish to finalize its deal to buy Boost Mobile. And after it looked like Dish might back out, we’re now hearing that the deal will close on July 1.
Meaning that, as of July 1, Dish Network will be the proud owners of Sprint’s prepaid business – all of it!
Dish wanted to renegotiate the deal after the economic downturn
This deal was all set in stone before the Coronavirus hit the global economy and put millions out of jobs. So, Dish founder and CEO, Charlie Ergen wanted to renegotiate the asset valuations with T-Mobile.
But the Justice Department reportedly was in the room to mediate talks this week. And from what was mentioned in the T-Mobile 8-K filing with the SEC, the DOJ supported a condition which would allow the company to provide network-compatible handsets to current and new Dish prepaid customers.
On top of this, The New York Post has also reported that Dish may be looking to get Google to manage its acquired carriers, though Google had denied the report – as expected.
What’s included in this deal?
Virgin Mobile was already killed off and customers were moved over to Boost Mobile. Which was a pretty easy thing to do since it all ran on Sprint’s network.
Now with Dish buying Boost Mobile, it’s getting that, Virgin Mobile (though the brand is gone now) and Sprint Prepaid. Basically the entire Sprint prepaid business. Which is a pretty substantial amount of customers.
This is important for Dish, because it is also getting access to T-Mobile’s network for a few years (no specific time frame was made public, but we have heard that it will be for at least two years). This is only going to be temporary, until Dish is able to build out its own network. Let’s not forget that Dish has been acquiring quite the spectrum war chest in the past decade or so. Meaning that it does have a pretty substantial amount of spectrum that it can use in its network. The only problem is going to be spending the money to build it out.