To hear Dish tell it, reports of the demise of Republic Wireless are greatly exaggerated.
Reports surfaced this week that Republic Wireless was likely shutting down. BestMVNO cited a new prepaid report by Wave7 Research suggesting that Republic Wireless by Dish would cease operations. The report said multiple sources confirmed a closure was likely, although no time frame was given.
Asked about the status of Republic Wireless, a Dish spokesperson provided the following statement to Fierce: "Republic Wireless is still in operation and remains a valued brand for DISH’s retail wireless business."
The statement didn’t elaborate as to whether the brand would be shutting down in the future.
To be sure, Republic Wireless bears little resemblance to the “Wi-Fi first” service that it started out as when it was part of Bandwidth, a North Carolina-based VoIP and broadband service provider. Republic Wireless was formed in 2011 and launched as an MVNO using Sprint’s network.
It was one of the first “Wi-Fi first” service providers, a model shared by Google Fi, where customers’ first chance for a wireless connection is Wi-Fi and it reverts to cellular when Wi-Fi isn’t available or satisfactory. For years, engineers at Republic Wireless were obsessed with refining the Wi-Fi calling process to make it better, going so far as developing a type of “patch” that intelligently sensed sub-optimal conditions on a Wi-Fi network. They called it Bonded Calling.
In 2018, Republic Wireless launched Relay, a communications product aimed at young children that was essentially a screenless, walkie-talkie type of device. When Dish acquired Republic Wireless in 2021, it described Relay as a standalone company providing communication and productivity solutions for frontline teams in hospitality, facilities management, manufacturing, healthcare and education.
Some people commenting on Republic Wireless’ Facebook page recalled being early adopters who were Republic Wireless beta customers in the early Wi-Fi first days. But BestMVNO noted that Republic Wireless’ social media accounts went mostly dark in 2022, and its online community forums permanently shut down in November 2022.
The Republic Wireless by Dish website remains up, with offers for unlimited plans for $29.99 per line for current Dish TV subscribers. The fine print also says Dish customers can save up to 60% with Republic Wireless based on April 2022 single-line price comparisons against unlimited plans offered by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
Gen Mobile in the spotlight
Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7 Research, said Dish has a family of prepaid brands – Boost, Ting, Republic Wireless and Gen Mobile among them – and some are getting more love than others. For example, Ting “is not getting any love,” he said.
Similarly, Republic Wireless is “showing a pulse and operating for the moment,” with the company providing responses to those seeking customer support, but “it’s a severely neglected brand. I don’t know why they bought it,” he said.
On the other hand, Dish’s Gen Mobile brand is showing significant signs of life. It had a sizable presence at the Prepaid Expo last year, with Dish VP and head of Gen Mobile Robert Yap speaking at the conference. It’s also been doing launch events in top markets across the country, reaching out to dealers, he said.
Gen Mobile has a strong focus on the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a government program that offers payment assistance to eligible households.
Moore said he doesn’t know how many subscribers they’re adding. “What’s completely clear is Dish Network is putting a lot of energy and effort behind Gen Mobile,” he said. Boost is also getting a lot of attention, with ads, both TV and radio, running during the holiday season.
Of course, a lot of hype has been building for Boost Infinite, Dish’s postpaid brand due for a commercial launch in the first quarter of 2023. Dish turned things around in the third quarter, reporting a scant net gain of 1,000 wireless customers, which was an improvement over the losses it was reporting.
In terms of the number of stores, AT&T’s Cricket brand surpassed Boost in the latter part of 2022 based on Wave7’s door counts, but Metro by T-Mobile still leads in the prepaid category by a wide margin, Moore said.