Echostar, the parent company of Dish Network, has eliminated 500 positions at its wireless subsidiary Boost Mobile.
The layoffs were announced last week, and were implemented days after Echostar agreed to sell around $23 billion worth of wireless spectrum licenses to AT&T amid pressure from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr.
In a statement emailed to reporters, a spokesperson for Echostar confirmed the layoffs were the direct result of the transaction with AT&T.
“With elements of our network to be decommissioned over time, the company will eventually not house a wireless network deployment workforce,” EchoStar said. “After thorough review of our business operations moving forward, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our network deployment workforce.”
The reductions account for less than 4 percent of EchoStar’s total headcount of 13,700 employees. Retail operations tied to Boost Mobile, the prepaid wireless brand owned by EchoStar, are not affected. Boost will continue to sell wireless service as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, leveraging partner infrastructure.
Boost started as an MVNO years ago, and returned to the business after it was spun off from Sprint as part of that company’s merger with T-Mobile. The spin-off was intended to satisfy regulatory concerns through the establishment of a fourth wireless network that would compete against T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. Dish Network, which acquired Boost Mobile’s assets and wireless licenses, merged with Echostar last year.
Over the past few years, Dish and Echostar said they met several deadlines imposed by the FCC for a national rollout of a fourth wireless network called Dish Wireless. But Carr questioned whether the company was truly committed to a fourth wireless network and had made significant progress toward that effort.
With a significant chunk of its spectrum licenses sold, Echostar now intends to continue operating Boost Mobile as a MVNO, one that works primarily on AT&T’s wireless network, with some secondary support from T-Mobile.
“This is an important step toward resolving the FCC’s recent inquiries and demonstrates our commitment to continued innovation and success,” Echostar CEO Hamid Akhavan confirmed in a social media post last week.
Employees affected by the reductions posted on social media about their role in building what became the nation’s first nationwide Open RAN network, launched originally as a narrowband Internet-of-Things initiative under Dish. Many expressed pride in those achievements, even as the company pivots away from operating its own wireless infrastructure.
