It’s been a tough week/month/year for Dish Network. So its ability to sell the iPhone 14 with the postpaid Boost Infinite service may be a bit of a break.
Announced on Friday, the Boost Infinite offer now includes an Infinite Unlimited+ subscription for $50/month, which includes unlimited talk, text and data. It’s also, for the first time, offering the “iPhone 14 on us” with a device trade-in.
Starting today, new customers can sign up for the Boost Unlimited+ service at the Boost Infinite website. The device trade-in is done online and through a shipping process since Boost Infinite is primarily an online service versus being sold in physical stores.
"We developed Boost Infinite to provide an outstanding customer experience and meaningful value to our members, while keeping things simple and straightforward," said Jeremy McCarty, head of Boost Infinite, in a statement. "Now with the introduction of Infinite Unlimited+, we are offering the best option for our members to get iPhone 14. We are excited to add iPhone 14 to our lineup with an impressive camera system, incredible battery life and vital safety capabilities."
The Infinite Unlimited+ offer is different from the Infinite Unlimited package in that the latter does not include North American and international connection plans or "access to special phone offers."
Dish shares were down more than 9% at one point today, trading around $6.72.
Earlier this week, S&P Global announced changes to its indices, resulting in Dish Network falling off the S&P 500 and being reassigned to the S&P SmallCap 600, effective June 20.
In March, Dish suffered a cyberattack that ended up costing it at least $30 million, and it’s been hit with investor lawsuits. Plus, it's facing a deadline to come up with $3.5 billion to buy 800 MHz spectrum from T-Mobile or pay a penalty of $72 million to T-Mobile.
Boost Mobile vs. Boost Infinite
Dish has been offering prepaid service through Boost Mobile, but Boost Infinite is its postpaid brand, which Dish views as the more profitable model. It’s been working for more than a year to get the postpaid brand ready for widescale commercial rollout.
Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen acknowledged during the company’s Q1 2023 earnings call last month that offering the iPhone is important and it would be very difficult to be successful in the postpaid business without it.
It's worth noting that the iPhone 14 currently being offered through Boost Infinite isn’t using Dish’s own 5G Standalone (SA) network.
“The iPhone is not currently certified for our network, but we’re working very closely with Apple to enable device support later this year,” a Dish spokesperson told Fierce. “The iPhone for Boost Infinite will currently be supported on one of our nationwide 5G network partners.”
Dish has mobile virtual operator network (MVNO) deals with both T-Mobile and AT&T and it expects to rely on those arrangements until it’s able to serve all its customers with its own voice-based service.
Dave Mayo, Dish’s EVP of network development, said last month that he’s confident Dish will meet its deadline to offer its own 5G network to 70% of the U.S. by June 14. Dish expects to launch 5G Voice over New Radio (VoNR) services in the rest of its markets in the second half of 2023.