- EchoStar's Q3 shows its same pattern in wireless: Boost keeps shedding subscribers
- The earnings landed the day before Dish Wireless's bankruptcy court hearing
- EchoStar shares, at $101.80, were up more than 3% in early morning trading
EchoStar’s wireless business – comprised mostly of Boost Mobile – reported 182,000 net customer losses for Q3 2026, continuing a losing streak even as reports surfaced this week that SpaceX might be in the market to acquire the floundering mobile business and/or assets.
EchoStar ended the quarter with nearly 7.2 million wireless subscribers, which is about 4% fewer than it had at the end of Q3 2025, according to the 10-Q SEC filing.
Results were slightly better in the revenue department; wireless ARPU was $39.11 in Q3 2026, which was more than consensus estimates of $38.40, and ARPU growth surpassed 5% year over year.
Wireless service revenue totaled $855 million for the three months ended September 30, 2026, an increase of $19 million, or 2.3%, compared to the same period in 2025.
In the not-so-great department, churn was 2.97% in Q3, slightly higher than the same period a year ago, when it was 2.86%.
EchoStar didn’t put out a press release or schedule a conference call to discuss Q3 results.
EchoStar’s Dish Wireless business is winding its way through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the Southern District of Texas. A hearing is set for tomorrow where Dish Wireless is due to report its progress after about two months of mediation with creditors of its failed 5G network, including tower companies.
Q-10 comes amid SpaceX talk
Just yesterday, the Washington Post reported that SpaceX was in talks to buy Boost Mobile or use its network as part of its plan to become a significant player in the mobile phone industry.
The timing of that report was interesting. For one, it’s an arrangement that’s been floated before – although without the citation of specific (unidentified) sources.
For another, part of that scenario would undoubtedly face push-back from mobile network operators (MNOs) that supply their network to Boost Mobile. The CEOs of the Big 3 U.S. MNOs have all said they have no interest in striking an MVNO agreement with SpaceX.
Tomorrow’s court date
In a note for investors, BNP Paribas Equity Research senior analyst Sam McHugh said the arrival of today’s earnings – the day before the next court date – is certainly interesting, although not necessarily a strong signal either way of how things will go.
“What makes this interesting is that it came off the back of reports yesterday that SpaceX was interested in acquiring all or some of EchoStar (and in particular the Dish Wireless assets/customers). The cleanest way to bridge the gap between what Dish has offered and what the tower companies want would be for someone else (SpaceX) to take on the tower commitments,” McHugh said.
The analyst noted that there’s a “reasonably high expectation” among investors that EchoStar will present some alternative solution, including one that involves SpaceX, and reporting EchoStar’s earnings before any potential agreement “may just have been far more straightforward for them.”
On the other hand, “the company also has deconsolidated other subsidiaries (like Dish DBS) due to the prepackaged Chapter 11 process, and the hearing tomorrow could reasonably be expected to have a material impact on how the company reports 3Q26 earnings and any subsequent event disclosure – meaning reporting 3Q26 earnings today may just have been the path of least resistance to keep reporting requirements as simple as possible,” he added.
Is SpaceX itching for a legal fight?
Amid all the talk about the MNOs refusing to do an MVNO deal with SpaceX is the idea that SpaceX could try to buy Boost and then if AT&T threatens to cancel the MVNO deal, SpaceX could try to use that to bolster an argument that the telcos are somehow acting anti-competitively, McHugh noted in a separate research note yesterday.
As per a consultation call with industry analyst Blair Levin on Friday, “it seems unlikely SpaceX will have much joy going down the legal route to try to get an MVNO/wholesale access,” McHugh said.
However, in many ways, all this news is “very unsurprising given we continue to get reports of all the things that SpaceX could be doing to try to get into the wireless business, which many continue to believe are aimed at putting pressure on the wireless carriers to crack on giving them an MVNO deal,” he said.
In this instance, the thrust of the Washington Post article “seems to be a slight shift from news a few weeks ago, when SpaceX was reported to be in talks with tower companies, as this seems to suggest an MVNO is still their preferred route,” he noted.
“Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive, and the fact that an MVNO/wholesale deal would ease their path to building a 4th network in a more economical way (build revenues, targeted initial network investment around customer clusters) is one of the core reasons granting the company access to their networks is such a bad idea for the Big Three wireless carriers,” McHugh said.
Read more stories about EchoStar, SpaceX and this saga on Fierce Network:
EchoStar gains 3% on report SpaceX eyes Boost Mobile
Do SpaceX’s ‘missing pieces’ carry a Dish logo on them?
SpaceX helps give towers new lease on life
Dish’s bad behavior leaves property owners in the lurch
SpaceX might sign deals for 80,000 towers to build mobile network, or is it bluffing?
Elon Musk: Starlink Mobile’s game plan too big for an earnings call