Mobile boost: what the United States loses

The operator’s network covers a number of large American cities and offers slightly slower speeds than other 5G suppliers provide.

Echostar, the company behind Boost Mobile, plans to downgrade parts of its wireless network following its recent agreements with AT&T and SpaceX. Here is an overview of some of the capabilities of this network before moving on to history.

The main dishes to remember:

• Based on Ookla Speedtest Intelligence® data, Echostar’s mobile boostar network has provided slightly slower median download speeds than those of its rivals, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
• In Drive Ookla Rootmetrics® tests, boost phones connected to the company’s wireless network approximately 83% of time in American metropolitan areas. In places where they did not connect to the mobile Boost network, they mainly connected to the AT&T network.
• Boost Phones used the 600 MHz spectrum of Echostar 86.8% of the time when they were not wrong, making this group the most used spectrum group in the company.
• Boost phones connected to at least 50 MHz of overall spectrum capacity in about half of all tests. In comparison, Boost competitors have deployed much more global spectrum.

Boost mobile speeds are lower than the American average

DISH Network – Which is Echostar today – bought 9 million mobile customers Boost in 2019 as part of an agreement with T -Mobile and the United States Ministry of Justice.

Under this agreement, Echostar was required to build a national wireless network. The objective was to have Echostar Sprint replaced as a fourth national wireless supplier in the United States

In the years that followed this agreement, Echostar has built a network covering around 80% of the American population. The Echostar network also uses innovative configurations of the Radio Access Network (O-RAN) and new suppliers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS).

But now this effort is made.

“The Mobile DISH experience is completed,” wrote TD Cowen financial analysts in a recent note to investors according to the Echostar agreements with AT&T and SpaceX. “His great ambitions are dead,” said the analyst of Recon Analytics Roger Entner.

According to Ookla’s speedtest intelligence data – which result from the results of Speedtest users – the Boost network has provided slightly slower download and download speeds than those of its rivals. And Boost multi-service latency measurements were slightly higher. These results comply with what Ookla research has reported in May this year.

And what about the Boost Mobile network coverage? Ookla Speedtest Insights® data – which is based both on the leading and background network tests – paints an image of the range of the Boost network:

The map above shows the strength of the 5g median Boost signal. The force of the median signal reflects the power of the radio signal of an operator received by the device of the cell tower. Higher signal levels generally indicate that the device is closer to a tower and increases the potential for good speed and the ability to make vocal and video calls without lower – which is subject to the capacity and quality of the network.

However, this card does not highlight the differences between the own Boost network and those of its itinerant partners. Instead, it is a representation of the experience that mobile customers receive.

The scope of the Boost network – and its dependence on its itinerant partners – is covered in the next section.

AT&T is Boost’s main roaming partner

Rootmetrics is another Ookla arm which performs controlled tests of mobile networks across all the United States twice a year, as well as in the world. These tests extend from interstate arteries to driving tests at the city level at walking tests, inside and outside. These tests can provide a deeper and more technical overview of an operator wireless network operations.

Rootmetrics tested the Boost network in 125 American metropolitan areas in the first half of 2025 and 28 in the second half of 2025 (before Echostar announcements with AT&T and SpaceX). Rootmetrics also tested the Boost network along 50 rural roads in the first half of 2025 and 11 in the second half of 2025.

Boost’s itinerant relationship parameters with AT&T and T-Mobile have emerged as a key conclusion in data. In order to complete its own network coverage, Boost Inked Roaming treats agreements with AT&T and T-Mobile.

According to test results, Boost relies strongly on the AT&T network, often connecting to it in American metropolitan areas and using most of the time along rural roads.

These results are not necessarily surprising. Boost first built its network in major American cities, then extended from these locations. Consequently, it generally does not cover rural roads outside of major American cities.

In addition, on the basis of test results 2h 2025, Boost had not yet launched its network in certain major cities of California. Consequently, it has largely traveled the AT&T network on these markets.

Some markets with Boost Service sported a relatively high percentage of roaming on the AT&T network, including Denver (tests that connect to the 12% of time) and Phoenix (tests linked to the AT&T network 16% of the time). On other markets, such as Las Vegas and St. Louis, Boost Tests connected to the Boost 99% of time network.

Overall, the Boost network extends over around 24,000 cellular sites. This represents around a third of the number of cellular sites deployed by other American national operators.

Boost mainly uses the low band spectrum 600 MHz

A final element of this evaluation of boost progress implies the use by the company of its spectrum assets.

Boost has built its network in three spectrum bands: the N71 band (600 MHz), the N66 band (AWS) and the N70 band (AWS-4). Echostar has licenses in other spectrum bands – including 3.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz CBRs – but it did not deploy the radio equipment necessary to put these bands in action.

Again, the data test provides information on how Boost uses his spectrum assets.

The reason why this represents more than 100% is that modern smartphones can connect to several spectrum bands at the same time and aggregate them.

Be that as it may, these results are remarkable because they help show the spectrum bands of the “working horse” in the network of an operator. And it is not surprising that 600 MHz plays a main role in the Boost network; Due to wireless communications physics, low -band spectrum signals like 600 MHz spread further than higher frequency signals. Thus, 600 MHz helped stimulate the satisfaction of the construction requirements of FCC networks.

The “depth” of the spectrum is another way of measuring the use of the boost spectrum. The quantity of spectrum used in the network of an operator is often directly linked to the speeds that the operator can provide.

About 43% of boost tests linked to 50 MHz of overall spectrum capacity. About 16% of tests related to a total of 60 MHz of spectrum.

To put this in perspective, other national wireless operators have deployed much more global spectrum. For example, more than half of AT&T tests have connected to more than 80 MHz of spectrum. For T-Mobile, this figure is 210 MHz.

A final measurement of the Boost network implies the aggregation of operators. In 2 hours 2025 tests, Boost used the carriers to aggregate technology. For example, more than half of all tests boost connected between three and four aggregated channels. In comparison, more than half of Verizon’s tests used the aggregation of carriers with two channels in 2h 2025, while more than half of T-Mobile tests used the aggregation of aircraft carrier with four-channels.

The aggregation of operators is a key wireless technology which combines several separate frequency bands in a single wider channel to considerably increase the speed, capacity and coverage of the network.

What is the next step?

Echostar recently agreed to sell its AWS-4 and H-Block Spectrum licenses in SpaceX for $ 17 billion. In addition, he said that he would sell his spectrum licenses of 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz in AT&T for 23 billion dollars.

AT&T officials have suggested that the operator would be able to activate the 3.45 GHz spectrum with software upgrading, and that the operator can use the spectrum to strengthen its fixed wireless services. But AT&T will have to deploy new radios to take action the spectrum of 600 MHz.

It is possible that, instead of putting the 600 MHz in its own network, AT&T can sell this spectrum in order to obtain more 3.45 GHz spectrum.

As of June 30, 2025, Boost had a total of 7.357 million wireless customers. It is likely that Echostar will manage these mobile customers Boost using its existing central network while transferring them to the wireless AT&T radio access network. This would allow Echostar to dismantle its own physical wireless network.

Echostar also plans to allow its Boost customers to go to the Starlink Satellite network in SpaceX. However, SpaceX must first deploy new satellites that support the AWS-4 and H-Block spectrum. And it will take several years to new phones to arrive on the market with the support of satellite connections in these groups.

It is also likely that Echostar will sell its remaining assets, such as its AWS and CBRS licenses, to a company like Verizon.

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