EchoStar boosts wireless subscribers, profit slips

EchoStar’s Boost Mobile division added 150,000 wireless subscribers in Q1 compared to a loss of 81,000 in the opening period of 2024, but net income and revenue dropped.

The company combines its prepaid and post-paid subscribers under the Boost Mobile brand and saw its mobile customer churn improve by 7.2 per cent.

It now has approximately 7.2 million wireless subscribers, down from 7.3 million.

EchoStar president and CEO Hamid Akhavan attributed the wireless subscriber gains to the company’s consistent marketing efforts and larger contributions from sales on its digital channels.

“We expanded the benefits of our prepaid and post-paid offerings to both our branded stores and digital sales channels,” he said on the earnings call. “We also increased our marketing spend and offers during the important tax return window, which seasonally increases demand for new devices and upgrades.”

“These activities helped anchor our first quarter subscriber growth and positioned us well for additional opportunities in 2025.”

Total wireless revenue increased 6.4 per cent to $973. million, driven by 3.3 per cent ARPU growth and higher handset sales.

OIBDA for the wireless segment came in at a loss of $415 million, a 14.2 per cent increase

EchoStar’s revenue of $3.8 billion was down 3.6 per cent and its net loss grew from $107.3 million to $202.6 million.

Network update
John Swieringa, president of technology and COO, said on the call the company met a Federal Communications Commission requirement to deploy 3GPP Release 17 across its network by 14 June.

He said Release 17 is a key enabler for 5G-Advanced.

“Also, we now have more than 24,000 5G sites on air, more than one month prior to our commitment date.”

Akhavan stated about 75 per cent of the company’s new subscribers are being served by its greenfield 5G network.

Dish Network launched the 5G network in 2022 and subsequently merged with EchoStar. It has MVNO agreements in place with T-Mobile US and AT&T.

“I think having the owner economics of having the customers be on our own MNO network is probably one of the biggest improvements we can make in cost and you see that trend will continue,” the CEO said.