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Boost Mobile has announced it is on its way to meeting FCC coverage deadlines by the end of the year and says it has earned the title of MNO \u2014 Mobile Network Operator \u2014 rather than MVNO, which is a virtual network operator mainly reselling service from other carriers. Mission… accomplished? Sort of. It\u2019s progress, at least.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Boost, you will remember, is supposed to be our nation\u2019s fourth wireless carrier thanks to a wonky deal that allowed T-Mobile to buy Sprint<\/a>. Dish Network \u2014 now owned by EchoStar<\/a> \u2014 bought the brand as part of the deal and is required by the FCC to hit certain milestones in its 5G network buildout to hold up its part of the bargain. Last June, it was required to cover 70 percent of the US population<\/a>; by the end of the year, it needs to reach 80 percent<\/a>. Boost\u2019s chief technology officer, Eben Albertyn, told The Verge,<\/em> \u201cWe are well on our way to meeting this goal.\u201d He says the company has lit up more than 20,000 of the 24,000 cell sites it has promised to deploy by June 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cCovering\u201d 80 percent of the population is one thing; actually providing service to customers on that network is another. While Boost\u2019s network has been under construction over the past few years it has mainly offered service through AT&T<\/a> and T-Mobile as an MVNO. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Boost spokespeople weren\u2019t able to tell me what percentage of customer traffic rides on Boost\u2019s own network versus its roaming partners. However, the company\u2019s director of communications, Meredith Diers, says it has migrated \u201cover half a million customers onto our network and our core since the beginning of this year.\u201d New customers in covered areas are also loaded directly on the network, provided they have a phone compatible with its network. Considering that just a couple of years ago, there was just one <\/em>phone <\/em>compatible with the network<\/a>, that\u2019s good progress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The effort has certainly come a long way since the days of Project Gene5is<\/a>, its early pilot program that weirdly had something to do with NFTs<\/a>. But Boost\u2019s subscriber numbers are still small; in its August earnings release the company said it had 7.28 million subscribers. T-Mobile counted 127 million customers in its most recent earnings release<\/a>. Even if it meets those FCC milestones on time, there\u2019s much more work to be done.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n