Latest news with #DishNetwork
Phone Arena
03-08-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Boost Mobile's turnaround confirmed even though parent EchoStar might not survive
In March 2024, EchoStar and Dish Network made their first combined filing with the SEC following EchoStar's purchase of Dish at the end of 2023. At the time of the filing, Dish had an option to buy 13.5MHz of low-band 800MHz spectrum from T-Mobile for $3.59 billion. Because of Dish's perilous financial situation, it continued to ask for an extension on the length of the option, which T-Mobile granted multiple times. Unable to buy the spectrum, Dish let the option expire; because it couldn't find another buyer, T-Mobile was left holding on to the airwaves . When it filed with the SEC to explain why it wouldn't be exercising the option on the airwaves, EchoStar/Dish was forced to admit that there was concern about the company's ability to operate. The large amount of debt due in 2024 and worries that the company would be burning through cash over the following 12 months raised "substantial doubt about [the company's] ability to continue as a going concern." Eventually, EchoStar was able to improve its financial position enough that it was not required to include the warning with its financial releases. However, the worries have now returned as EchoStar is experiencing a cash crunch. In a 10-Q filing with the SEC, the company wrote, "We currently do not have the necessary cash on hand, projected future cash flows, or committed financing to fund our obligations over the next twelve months, which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." Trying to survive this liquidity crunch, EchoStar stated that it is in "active discussions with funding sources to raise additional capital and/or restructure our outstanding debt." Phillip Burnett, an analyst with New Street Research, says that the "going concern" disclosure should not be seen as a surprise considering EchoStar's current cash situation and the $3.4 billion in debt that comes due over the next year. On July 30th, EchoStar made an interest payment that was due July 1st, temporarily preventing the company from filing for bankruptcy. But EchoStar has paused the buildout of its 5G network due to uncertainties over its spectrum rights. A report this past week says that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has urged EchoStar to sell its AWS-4 (2GHz) spectrum holdings in what Carr said was his ""best and final offer." The FCC is looking to strip EchoStar of this spectrum because SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, wants it for Musk's plan to connect SpaceX satellites to smartphones. SpaceX claims that EchoStar has been hoarding this spectrum, and it should be re-allocated or put up for auction again. John Swieringa, EchoStar's president of technology and COO, said during the earnings call ,"Until this matter is resolved, we're focused on continuing to optimize the network infrastructure in place and continuing to add customers to our network." EchoStar said in the 10-Q filing that it is in talks with the company is also working on a direct-to-device (D2D) low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite project. The service using EchoStar's global S-band/2GHz spectrum rights will deliver global talk, text, and broadband services to 5G devices. The project will cost $5 billion, with service scheduled to start in 2029. The service will be sold to wholesalers who will deal with consumers. -Craig Moffett, Analyst, MoffettNathanson EchoStar President and CEO Hamid Akhavan says that the LEO network could force carriers to get rid of "hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of cell sites" that are not cost effective. Despite the return of the "going concern disclosure," there is good news to report. It seems that, finally, EchoStar's Boost Mobile is turning around. Last week, we told you that Boost Mobile's Q2 earnings report could show a sign that the carrier finally has traction. After watching its 9.4 million subscribers fall to 7.2 million since Boost Mobile was sold to Dish, Boost reported its third consecutive net quarterly gain in subscribers this past Friday. For Q2, Boost added 212,000 net subscribers, crushing a gain of 88,000 expected by analysts. It was also a huge improvement over the loss of 16,000 net subscribers reported during the same quarter last year. Wireless churn declined 24 basis points on an annual basis. This is big because it seems that the new Boost Mobile is finally showing signs of being accepted as the nation's fourth-largest carrier.
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EchoStar (SATS) Reports Q2 Loss, Misses Revenue Estimates
EchoStar (SATS) came out with a quarterly loss of $1.06 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of $1.12. This compares to a loss of $0.76 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +5.36%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this seller of set-top boxes and provider of satellite services to Dish Network would post a loss of $0.9 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.71, delivering a surprise of +21.11%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times. EchoStar, which belongs to the Zacks Satellite and Communication industry, posted revenues of $3.72 billion for the quarter ended June 2025, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.87%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $3.95 billion. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates just once over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. EchoStar shares have added about 42.3% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 7.8%. What's Next for EchoStar? While EchoStar has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for EchoStar was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is -$1.29 on $3.82 billion in revenues for the coming quarter and -$4.30 on $15.4 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Satellite and Communication is currently in the bottom 31% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. One other stock from the same industry, Telesat (TSAT), is yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2025. The results are expected to be released on August 6. This satellite communications company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.69 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +76%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Telesat's revenues are expected to be $79.05 million, down 29.1% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report EchoStar Corporation (SATS) : Free Stock Analysis Report Telesat Corporation (TSAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Phone Arena
31-07-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Friday's Q2 earnings report for EchoStar could signal something big for Boost Mobile
Back in May, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to EchoStar Chairman Charlie Ergen about two matters. As part of T-Mobile 's acquisition of Sprint, the FCC demanded that another carrier be selected to replace Sprint as the fourth nationwide facilities-based network competitor. So a deal was made with the FCC. In exchange for approving the transaction, Dish Network would buy Boost Mobile and build out its own 5G standalone network. On the last day of 2023, EchoStar acquired Dish. Big earnings report is coming for EchoStar's Boost Mobile unit. | Image credit-Boost Mobile The FCC issued a series of goals that the Dish 5G network would have to meet at certain deadlines. Dish has two more tests to pass, both of which were pushed back one in 2026 and the other in 2028. In the aforementioned letter written by Carr, he threatened to reschedule the last two tests back to their original dates, which have since passed. If Carr does that, Dish would have to make a "voluntary contribution" to the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $2.2 billion. This is money that EchoStar does not have right now. The FCC ended up holding formal inquiries into the 5G build-out of EchoStar/Dish/Boost Mobile. The other issue that Carr is focusing on is the use of 2GHz spectrum by EchoStar and its units. Last week, following an open meeting held by the FCC, Carr said that on one hand the FCC is trying to open up spectrum and at the same time, "you have Dish effectively over the years sitting on a tremendous amount of spectrum that simply isn't loaded." During an appearance on CNBC last week, Carr said that the FCC is "Doing a lot of discussions with Dish and Charlie Ergen as well. He's got a lot of spectrum there that frankly has not been put to its highest and best use in terms of loading the spectrum. We've been in conversations with him … Those conversations are ongoing." The speculation is that Elon Musk's SpaceX wants the 2GHz airwaves because it is superior to the airwaves that SpaceX has for satellite to cellphone connectivity. Looking at EchoStar's 8-K filing, New Street Research analyst Philip Burnett says that it appears to him that the company is thinking about selling some of its spectrum to Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T. In a note to investors that Burnett wrote to investors on Wednesday, he said, "It's possible we will gain greater clarity about the company's intentions when they report [Q2] results on Friday." EchoStar's upcoming Q2 report is important because Boost Mobile reported net additions of 150,000 cellular customer during the first quarter this year. During the same quarter last year, the company had lost 81,000 net wireless subscribers. This could be the start of a turnaround. Since Boost Mobile was bought by Dish, it has seen its subscribers decline from 9.4 million to 7.2 million. That is a decline of 23.4%. But as we said, there are some signs that better days are coming. Besides the 150K net gain in cellular customer during Q1 2025, during Q4 2024 Boost Mobile added 90,000 net subscribers. So as we said, the second quarter numbers due out this Friday are very important to Boost Mobile. Investors have been worried about a possible bankruptcy filing by EchoStar so when the contents of the company's 8-K filing to the SEC revealed that the company made the July 1st interest payment, buyers starting jumping into Echostar's shares with both feet. On Wednesday EchoStar's shares soared $3.31 or 11.2%, closing st $32.82. Earlier in the day, the shares hit a 52-week high at $34.20.
Phone Arena
21-07-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
EchoStar reportedly considers a deal with a Verizon MVNO to keep Boost alive
Having Boost Mobile replace Sprint as the nation's fourth-largest carrier was done to prevent consumers from having to pay higher prices for wireless service. Without that fourth major firm offering service, the remaining three can hike their prices without having that fourth competitor come in with lower prices. This is why the FCC demanded that a replacement for Sprint be chosen before it agreed to allow T-Mobile to close on the $26 billion transaction. It was no secret that Dish Network co-founder and current EchoStar Chairman Charles Ergen had long wanted to own a carrier, and the FCC was giving him an opportunity to make his dream come true. So Dish bought Boost, but customers weren't exactly rushing through the front doors. Dish started with the 9.3 million customers it acquired from Boost Mobile. During the first quarter of 2022, for example, Dish reported a net loss of 363,000 customers, leaving it with 8.5 million subscribers. The carrier's firm rate rose to 5,11% from 4.44% year-over-year. Boost has been criticized for being a prepaid carrier pretending to be a postpaid carrier. | Image credit-Unknown On the last day of 2023, EchoStar acquired Dish Network, and things have continued to go south for Boost Mobile, still owned by Dish, which is now an EchoStar subsidiary. As for Q1 2025, Boost Mobile had 7.2 million customers remaining. That means it had lost 22.6% of its customers since opening its doors for business. This past Friday, a report said that Ergen might be looking to start a turnaround for Boost by combining it with MobileX. That's the business run by CEO Peter Adderton, who was one of the founders of Boost Mobile. The latter was successful and was subsequently sold to Nextel in 2003. At the time, Boost was adding 40,000 net new subscribers each month. Two years later, Sprint acquired Nextel which is how Sprint ended up with Boost Mobile before it sold to Dish Networks on July 1, 2020. FCC Commissioner Brandon Carr has been after EchoStar over two issues. One is whether the 5G build-out requirements that the FCC placed on Dish when it acquired Boost were being met by EchoStar, and the other issue is whether EchoStar is using the 2GHz airwaves that it has. It seems that SpaceX wants that spectrum for its satellite to cellphone service because it is superior to the airwaves that it is currently using. EchoStar avoided a bankruptcy filing by making a $500 million interest payment on Debt near the end of June. Could a combination of MobileX and EchoStar help the latter turn around? The former uses AI to determine how much data a subscriber might need and sells it on a pay-as-you-go basis in many Walmart stores. MobileX is an MVNO that uses Verizon's wireless network. Adderton, the MobileX CEO who helped found Boost has criticized the Boost Mobile purchase by Dish. Wave7 Research principal Jeff Moore told Fierce Wireless, "My largest criticism of Boost is the fact it's a prepaid carrier that is pretending to be a postpaid carrier." He believes that Boost needs to build a postpaid presence, seeing that most of its stores are in areas where they serve prepaid customers. Moore says that Boost needs to promote its postpaid service and build more postpaid stores. Their Boost Infinite Access for iPhone and Infinite Access for Galaxy plans cost $65 a month and give you a new iPhone or Galaxy each year. While $65 per month is the cost for the base iPhone and Galaxy phone each year, you can pay more to select one of the pricier models. The plan also comes with talk, text, and data (including 30GB of premium data), global talk and text, and more. And every year, you get a new iPhone or Galaxy handset. If I ran Boost (and you know where to reach me guys!), I would promote the hell out of the Infinite Access plans. Getting a new iPhone or Galaxy smartphone each year should be a powerful incentive for consumers to become Boost customers.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why EchoStar Stock Is Skyrocketing Today
EchoStar is seeing big valuation gains after it was disclosed that the company has resumed making interest payments on its debt. The interest payments will allow the company to sidestep filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections. Support from the Trump administration may allow EchoStar to resolve issues with the FCC. 10 stocks we like better than EchoStar › EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS) stock is surging higher in Friday's trading following some big financial news. The company's share price was up 12.8% as of 2 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 was up 0.3%. EchoStar submitted a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicating that it is making over $500 million in debt-interest payments. The payments had been overdue, but the fact that they are now being dispersed to creditors should help stave off bankruptcy risks. EchoStar had missed $509 million in combined interest payments due on May 30 and June 2, but it is now sending that cash to creditors. The payments will allow the company to avoid filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The satellite technologies specialist would have had to file for Chapter 11 protections if it had not made the payments by June 30. Following today's gains, the stock is now up roughly 26% in 2025 -- and has risen roughly 64% over the last year. EchoStar, which owns Dish Network, had missed interest payments on its debt due to issues with its 5G buildout obligations and spectrum licensing issues raised by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The stock rocketed higher earlier this month after it was reported that President Donald Trump was advocating for the FCC to reach a deal with EchoStar that would resolve issues and help the company retain its spectrum licensing rights. With debt of roughly $26 billion against a market capitalization of roughly $8.2 billion, shareholders of EchoStar's common stock would likely get wiped out if the company were to go through bankruptcy proceedings. The company's financial position doesn't necessarily suggest an imminent risk of bankruptcy, but there is a risk that the satellite communications specialist would file for bankruptcy to shield its spectrum rights from being seized by regulators. Given the payments being made on interest and the advocacy from the Trump administration, it's looking less likely the company will need to go that route. Before you buy stock in EchoStar, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and EchoStar wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $704,676!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $950,198!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 175% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 23, 2025 Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why EchoStar Stock Is Skyrocketing Today was originally published by The Motley Fool
