EchoStar’s Boost Mobile lays off 500
September 4, 2025
By Chris Forrester
EchoStar’s decision to sell capacity to cellular giant AT&T and its decision to become a virtual operator for its Boost Mobile 5G service has led to lay-offs for Boost staffers.
An EchoStar spokesperson says there are no changes in store for the Boost Mobile brand, which will essentially become an MVNO using AT&T’s network. However, some 500 jobs will go from Boost’s wireless network deployment and engineering groups.
The Boost network, built up using Open RAN technology, was completed in record time and earned praise from customers and analysts for its performance. But it hasn’t been as successful as had been hoped in attracting new customers.
“Due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) actions, the recent announcement of EchoStar selling spectrum licenses to AT&T significantly impacts the company’s 5G wireless network deployment unit,” says EchoStar. “With elements of our network to be decommissioned over time, the company will eventually not house a wireless network deployment workforce. After thorough review of our business operations moving forward, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our network deployment workforce. The majority of impacted employees were notified on Thursday, August 28th.”
Meanwhile, EchoStar is challenging the FCC’s new demand for more spectrum sales. EchoStar is suing the FCC in Colorado and asking the Court to overturn the FCC’s recent rulings to sell spectrum and saying the plan will result in major penalties stemming from EchoStar’s success in winning spectrum allocations in an earlier frequency auction.
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