Key points
- SpaceX reportedly in talks over Boost Mobile
- EchoStar is already due SpaceX shares
- Why AT&T and T-Mobile hold a key
SpaceX (SPCX) is in talks to buy Boost Mobile or secure access to its network, The Washington Post reported on Monday. Boost's owner, EchoStar (ECHO), is already set to receive up to about 261.8 million SpaceX shares when an earlier spectrum sale to SpaceX closes, according to EchoStar's second-quarter 10-Q. EchoStar is targeting November 30, 2027 for that closing.
At SpaceX's October 30 close of $134.72, the full block would be worth about $35.3 billion, by our calculations. EchoStar's market value was about $28.2 billion at its own October 30 close of $96.94, based on the 290.5 million shares it reported outstanding in July.
EchoStar shares were up 6.3% at $103.00 in premarket trading as of 7:55 a.m. ET on Monday, and SpaceX was up 1.5%. T-Mobile (TMUS) and Verizon (VZ) were each down 2.3%, and AT&T (T) was down 2.1%.
Boost runs on AT&T's network
Elon Musk has been personally involved in the talks and met EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen in October. No price or deal structure has been reported.
EchoStar agreed in 2025 to sell spectrum to AT&T and SpaceX. It had finished moving all of Boost's customer traffic onto AT&T's network by November 15, 2025, the 10-Q says. EchoStar still runs Boost's 5G core, the software that manages calls and data, and calls the arrangement a "Hybrid MNO." It also buys network capacity from T-Mobile and AT&T under two separate agreements.
Wireless leases typically can't be transferred to a new owner without the carrier's consent, so SpaceX may need approval from both AT&T and T-Mobile. EchoStar lists that dependence as a risk in its 10-Q. The carriers "may seek to limit, reduce or terminate our network access to the extent that it becomes competitively advantageous to do so," the filing says.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman was asked on October 26 whether Verizon would offer Starlink an MVNO deal, an arrangement in which a company sells phone service on capacity rented from a bigger carrier. "I see absolutely no benefit whatsoever to extending an MVNO deal to any satellite provider," he said on Verizon's earnings call.
How the SpaceX share count was set
SpaceX agreed on September 7, 2025 to buy EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block licenses for $17 billion, with up to $8.5 billion of that in SpaceX stock. On November 5, 2025, the companies added EchoStar's AWS-3 licenses for $2.6 billion, all of it in stock. The total rose to about $20 billion.
The two stock portions add up to $11.1 billion, which the filing rounds to $11 billion. They were priced at $212 a share. After SpaceX's 5-for-1 split in May 2026, that became up to about 261.8 million shares at $42.40 each.
The FCC approved the sale on May 12, 2026. On May 22, EchoStar moved the licenses into a trust, where they stay until the final closing.
The share count can still come down. Part of the $17 billion goes to paying off EchoStar notes secured by the spectrum, which had $9.821 billion of principal outstanding on June 30. Under the original terms, any payoff above $8.5 billion reduces the stock portion dollar for dollar unless EchoStar covers the excess itself, in cash or, for its convertible notes, in its own stock. Until closing, SpaceX is lending the trust enough to pay interest on the notes, about $2 billion through November 30, 2027.
EchoStar names the stake as a risk to its own share price. "Investor expectations regarding our potential investment in SpaceX may be currently influencing our stock price," the 10-Q says, and a failure to complete the transaction "could materially and negatively impact the market price of our Class A common stock."
The spectrum agreement also provides for long-term deals that let EchoStar offer its wireless customers SpaceX's Starlink Direct to Cell service, plus a referral program that pays EchoStar fees for sending customers to SpaceX. EchoStar has also started doing installation work for new Starlink customers.
In October, SpaceX agreed to buy Grain Management's 800 MHz spectrum for Starlink Mobile. EchoStar had 7.375 million wireless subscribers on June 30, mostly under the Boost Mobile and Gen Mobile brands, after losing 118,000 in the second quarter.
EchoStar hasn't filed its third-quarter 10-Q yet. Last year's was filed on November 6.
