Boost Mobile (United States)

Last updated

Boost Mobile
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Wireless telecommunications
Founded2001;23 years ago (2001)
FounderPeter Adderton
Headquarters
Englewood, Colorado
,
United States
Key people
John Swieringa (president)
ProductsSmart phones, wireless service
Parent Dish Wireless
Website www.boostmobile.com

Boost Mobile is an American wireless service provider owned by Dish Wireless. It uses the Dish, AT&T and T-Mobile networks to deliver wireless services. As of Q3 2023, Boost Mobile, along with its sister brands Boost Infinite, Gen Mobile, and Ting Mobile had 7.50 million customers. [1]

Contents

It was founded as a joint venture between Peter Adderton, Craig Cooper, Kirt McMaster, and Nextel Communications. It was purchased by Nextel in 2003 and, as a result of the merger between Sprint Corporation and Nextel, then became owned by Sprint in 2004. It was then purchased by Dish Wireless on July 1, 2020, as a result of the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.

History

A Manhattan mobile phone store offered products and services from several Sprint-owned prepaid brands, including Boost Mobile. Virgin Boost shop 184 lex jeh.jpg
A Manhattan mobile phone store offered products and services from several Sprint-owned prepaid brands, including Boost Mobile.

After Peter Adderton founded Boost Mobile Australia and New Zealand in 2000, Peter Adderton, Craig Cooper, and Kirt McMaster brought the Boost Mobile brand to the United States in 2001 as a joint venture with Nextel Communications. Using Nextel's iDEN network, Boost Mobile offered an unlimited push-to-talk service, marketed as only costing a dollar a day, at a time when cellphone plans offering unlimited talk were still rare. The service was initially exclusive to markets in areas of California and Nevada and was marketed towards urban minorities, often using urban slang in advertisements. Eventually, Nextel became the sole owner of Boost's United States operations in 2003. Nextel began to expand the brand elsewhere in the United States in late 2004 after its acquisition by Sprint Corporation. [2] Boost Mobile then became a subsidiary of the merged company, Sprint Nextel Corporation.

Boost Mobile still continued to use the previous Nextel iDEN infrastructure for its service, but in 2006, began to offer a new Unlimited by Boost Mobile service in select markets using Sprint's CDMA network, offering unlimited talk, text, and internet. While the plans resulted in significant growth for Boost Mobile, Boost did not begin shifting to CDMA entirely. [3]

To compete with unlimited offerings from competitors in the wireless industry, Boost Mobile announced on January 15, 2009, that it would launch a Monthly Unlimited Plan. [4] The plan was accompanied by re-focusing the brand towards a broader demographic than before. The new unlimited plan resulted in a net gain of more than 674,000 customers in about three months. [5] Despite this lift, Nextel overall suffered a gross subscriber loss of 1.25 million contract subscriptions. The unexpected surge in popularity for the service caused significant strain on the Nextel iDEN network—as many customers reported long and sometimes week-long delays in receiving text messages. A Boost Mobile spokesman said that they did not anticipate the level of popularity for the new service and that efforts to improve the network had been implemented to help mitigate the problem. [6]

At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, Boost Mobile announced it would begin to offer a new unlimited plan using Sprint's CDMA network. [7] Sprint also acquired fellow prepaid wireless provider Virgin Mobile USA in 2010—both Boost and Virgin Mobile were re-organized into a new group within Sprint, encompassing the two brands and other no-contract phone services offered by the company. [8]

In January 2020, Sprint discontinued the Virgin Mobile USA brand and transferred its customers to Boost Mobile. [9] [10] On April 1, 2020, Sprint merged with T-Mobile, which also announced plans to sell Boost Mobile to Dish Network. [11] The sale was completed on July 1. All new Boost Mobile customers will use the T-Mobile network, with the remaining Sprint customers to be moved to the T-Mobile network over time. [12]

On July 19, 2021, Dish Wireless announced it was purchasing $5 billion of wholesale wireless over the next 10 years from AT&T. In exchange, Dish shares some of its 5G spectrum with AT&T. [13]

2023 ransomware attack

In February 2023, Boost Mobile's parent company Dish Network suffered a major ransomware attack which resulted in internal outages, loss of service and data theft at its subsidiary companies. [14] Boost Mobile customers reported that they were unable to contact customer service, cancel their subscription, or make payments. The outage affected customers across the U.S. [15] [16]

Service outages lasted for more than a month, with customers reporting wait times for customer service stretching to more than 14 hours. [17] Full service was not restored until May 2023. [18]

Released phones

In June 2010, Boost Mobile launched the Motorola i1 smartphone, Boost's first iDEN-based push-to-talk Android phone, [19] and in April 2011, they announced the Samsung Galaxy Prevail, the company's first CDMA-based Android offering. [20]

In July 2012, Boost Mobile released the BlackBerry Curve 9310, [21] and in March 2013, they released the HTC One SV and the ZTE-made Boost Force smartphone, the company's first device using Sprint's 4G LTE network. [22] In June that year, Boost Mobile released the LG Optimus F7, the company's first device with a removable Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) for LTE network authentication/access, a new form of Subscriber identity module (SIM card). [23]

In December 2014, Boost Mobile released the Lumia 635, its first smartphone using Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, [24] and in July 2015, they launched the NETGEAR Fuse along with no-contract Wi-Fi Hotspot plans, its first Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot device. [25]

Marketing

The Boost Mobile-sponsored NASCAR stock car of Travis Pastrana in 2012 Pastrana 99 at Richmond April 2012.jpg
The Boost Mobile-sponsored NASCAR stock car of Travis Pastrana in 2012

The Boost Mobile brand was initially marketed to the teen and young adult demographics, heavily focused on action sports, lifestyle and urban music. Boost Mobile's past American advertising campaigns featured Los Rakas, Terry Kennedy, Kanye West, Ludacris, and The Game, and used the slang slogan "Where you at?" [26] In late 2007, a Boost Mobile commercial with Young Jeezy, Jermaine Dupri, and Mickey Avalon was released. The "Where you at?" slogan referenced the walkie-talkie feature on all Boost Mobile phones and later evolved to highlight a social GPS application that was available on selected Boost Mobile phones. [27] Boost have also used Indy Car driver Danica Patrick in a commercial. A 2005 episode of Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force titled "Boost Mobile" was an early example of native advertising within a regular television series.

Boost Mobile has also produced some regional campaigns, including providing live paper shredders at bus stops in Chicago and Boston, where several times an hour sample contracts from competing wireless service providers would be shredded into confetti. [28]

Logo used by Boost Mobile following acquisition by Dish from July 1, 2020, until August 29, 2023. The previous logo returned on August 30, 2023. Boost Mobile United States logo.png
Logo used by Boost Mobile following acquisition by Dish from July 1, 2020, until August 29, 2023. The previous logo returned on August 30, 2023.

On January 20, 2010, Boost Mobile's then-parent company Sprint Nextel managed to secure some of the 1985 Chicago Bears players (including Jim McMahon, Willie Gault, and Mike Singletary) to re-create the team's famous "Super Bowl Shuffle" rap song and music video as "The Boost Mobile Shuffle" during the first quarter of the Super Bowl XLIV. [29]

Boost Mobile debuted a television campaign in June 2012 to promote the HTC EVO Design 4G, its first smartphone using Sprint's 4G WiMAX network. The ads feature comedian Faizon Love as the "4Genie", a genie who magically appears where cellphone users seek low-cost 4G. [30]

On July 1, 2021, the first day on which NCAA student-athletes were allowed to receive compensation for the use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL), Boost announced that it had signed Haley and Hanna Cavinder, twin basketball players at Fresno State with a social media following in the millions, as spokespersons. [31]

Services

ACP Program

Boost Mobile actively participates in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), providing affordable connectivity and mobile services to eligible households. Through the Affordable Connectivity Program, participants get a discount on Boost Mobile phone or mobile broadband plans. [32] The program collaborates with wireless carriers, like Boost Mobile, to offer payment assistance based on income and provide a one-time device subsidy. The ACP is a federal government program operated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

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References

  1. ↑ "DISH Network Reports Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results | Dish". ir.dish.com. November 6, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2023.
  2. ↑ Moritz, Scott (October 20, 2022). "Boost Mobile Founder Wants to Buy Back Service, Prevent Deal by Dish". Bloomberg News. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Tech Biz: Behind the Sprint/Nextel merger - Dec. 15, 2004". money.cnn.com. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  4. ↑ "As More Wireless Consumers Are Adopting Flat-Rate Prepaid Plans, the Value of the New Boost Mobile Monthly Unlimited Plan Trumps MetroPCS and Cricket" (Press release). Boost Mobile. Marketwired. January 15, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  5. ↑ Silver, Sara (May 5, 2009). "Sprint Posts Larger Loss". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  6. ↑ Ankeny, Jason (May 4, 2009). "Boost Mobile to release text delay fix this week". FierceMobileContent. Archived from the original on August 14, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  7. ↑ Dolcourt, Jessica. "Boost Mobile offering monthly unlimited plans for CDMA phones". CNET . Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Sprint Nextel prepares a push to win pay-as-you-go customers". Kansas City Business Journal . Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  9. ↑ Hollister, Sean (January 8, 2020). "Sprint is killing off Virgin Mobile USA, and Virgin is getting the rights back". The Verge.
  10. ↑ "Top 6 Key Factors in Boost Mobile Insurance - Learn Before Enroll". Swipe On Idea. June 7, 2022. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  11. ↑ Costelloe, Kevin (April 1, 2020). "Boost Mobile Sale to Dish Seen Soon, T-Mobile Says". Orange County Business Journal. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020.
  12. ↑ Farrell, Mike (June 18, 2020). "Dish Says Boost Mobile Deal Will Close July 1". Multichannel News. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Dish will pay AT&T $5 billion to serve its mobile customers". July 19, 2021.
  14. ↑ Clark, Mitchell (February 28, 2023). "Dish CEO says data was stolen in cyberattack that's kept systems down for days". The Verge. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  15. ↑ Birdwell, Rylie (March 12, 2023). "Boost Mobile outages strike many across the nation and those in central Arkansas react". KARK. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Boost Mobile outages strike nation, impacts Topeka". KSNT. March 8, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  17. ↑ Ovide, Shira (April 4, 2023). "We all should worry about the Dish and Sling TV cyberattack". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  18. ↑ "Outage Statement". Boost Mobile. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  19. ↑ Gray, Nick (June 10, 2010). "Boost Mobile's Motorola i1 launching on June 20th". androidandme.com. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
  20. ↑ "Why Settle When You Can "Prevail" with the new Android-powered Phone from Boost Mobile and Samsung". www.businesswire.com. April 5, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Boost Mobile takes BlackBerry Curve 9310 to the US, spices it up with $30 unlimited BBM, voice and text plan". Engadget. June 27, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  22. ↑ "Sprint's first Boost LTE phones unveiled: HTC One SV and ZTE Force". Android Authority. December 8, 2012. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  23. ↑ "Create, Share and Inspire with LG Optimus F7 Smartphone from Boost Mobile". www.businesswire.com. June 19, 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  24. ↑ "Nokia Lumia 635 will soon launch at Sprint, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile". News.Wirefly. December 16, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  25. ↑ "Boost Mobile Launches First Wi-Fi Hotspot Plans with Availability of the NETGEAR Fuse". www.businesswire.com. July 14, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  26. ↑ "Boost Brings Back 'Where You At?'". www.mediapost.com. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Boost mobile walkie talkie". Business Insider. Archived from the original on May 20, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2021.
  28. ↑ Nudd, Tim (April 2, 2009). "AdFreak: Boost Mobile has bus-stop paper shredders". Adweek . Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  29. ↑ Vranica, Suzanne (January 15, 2010). ""Super Bowl Shuffle" Reprised by 1985 Chicago Bears for Boost Mobile Ad". The Wall Street Journal . Archived from the original on March 22, 2010.
  30. ↑ "Boost Mobile ad pimps WiMax 4G". CNET. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  31. ↑ Murphy, Dan (July 1, 2021). "Let's make a deal: NCAA athletes cashing in on name, image, and likeness". ESPN.com. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  32. ↑ Ruth, Olivia (August 1, 2023). "Boost Mobile phone". FreeSmartphoneAid.com. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
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