Boost Mobile, EchoStar’s retail wireless carrier, is updating its brand, launching an ad campaign and debuting new pricing plans, including a $25-a-month voice and data plan that is “price locked forever for customers who sign up now with autopay.”
In a saturated wireless services market with three significantly larger and better-funded competitors, the Boost Mobile relaunch aims to make switching less risky for consumers. “To show off its state-of-the-art network, Boost Mobile is also introducing a new 30-day money-back guarantee,” the company announced. “This allows new customers to try Boost Mobile’s 5G network risk-free, ensuring they experience its speed and reliability firsthand.”
The company’s new ads were directed by Jonathan Krisel, writer and director of Portlandia. They depict “a fictional group of Boost Mobile employees that built the 5G network and are living with the ramifications of it,” according to a company blog post. We won’t link to them, but we’re sure the ads are at least as charming and quirky as you’d expect from a phone company.
Boost Mobile’s new wireless plans and prices. (Source: Boost Mobile)
New network, who dis?
Boost is moving as many of its customers as it can to its new 5G network to take advantage of “owner economics,” which gives it lower costs and higher margins for each customer. In March, the company said it finished its final network test, which certified that its nationwide, open RAN 5G network provides download speeds of at least 35 Mbit/s to more than 70% of the US population.
The company said it had about 7.3 million wireless subscribers as of last quarter. During EchoStar’s first-quarter earnings call in May, execs said that during that quarter, half the devices sold and activated at Boost were “compatible” with Boost’s network and “3 of those 5 activated directly on net.”
In plainer language, we can assume that most of EchoStar’s wireless customers are still on T-Mobile’s or AT&T’s networks. The fun part of this Boost Mobile relaunch is that it will necessitate EchoStar slagging off its partners in commercials and in-store ads even as it depends on them to keep its current customers happy.
“Boost Mobile is now the only nationwide carrier with both prepaid and postpaid mobile services under one name because Boost believes how you pay is not a product,” the company said in its press release. That was a shot at MVNO brands like Cricket Wireless, owned by AT&T, and Metro (formerly MetroPCS), owned by T-Mobile.
Postpaid wireless customers are considered more valuable over time – they spend more and generally switch providers less often. Most of EchoStar’s mobile customers are prepaid, and Boost Mobile hopes its new plans and swagger can change that.
Running it back
Back in December 2022, Dish Wireless, an earlier EchoStar brand, launched a postpaid wireless service under the Boost Infinite brand. The selling point was a $25-a-month “unlimited” plan that came with 30GB of high-speed data.
Unfortunately, Dish didn’t do a great job of marketing that service and it didn’t catch on in a big way. In late 2023, Dish Network and EchoStar merged, in part to give Dish a way to access cash and finish its 5G network buildout.
Even with its new network and brand, Boost Mobile isn’t showing up in the most obvious place that US-based, postpaid smartphone shoppers look for new deals. As of this writing, if you shop for an iPhone on Apple’s site or in its stores, the smartphone kingpin offers connectivity through AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, but not Boost Infinite or any of the brands in the EchoStar extended universe.
But that’s in the real world. The online world is different, and EchoStar is leaning into its digital presence and partners to tempt customers to switch providers. “Boost Mobile is repositioning its brand and unveiling its enhanced digital purchasing experience, bringing an innovative and fresh approach to a stale wireless industry,” the company said.
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