Charlie Ergen to Acquire Controlling Stake in MobileX: Report
MobileX ‘has the cellular part, just need the satellite part,’ CEO says
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17, 2026 – EchoStar co-founder Charlie Ergen has reached a deal to acquire a controlling stake in MobileX, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
MobileX is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) offering service on Verizon’s network. The prepaid provider has customizable plans customers can add or drop features from, similar to plans recently rolled out by the national carriers, and a tool that can recommend plans based on data usage.
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Ergen’s deal would value the company at $200 million, the Wall Street Journal reported and would bring in Verizon as a minority shareholder. Ergen’s stake would be acquired through his special purpose acquisition company CONX.
Ergen’s own prepaid brand, Boost Mobile, has struggled since he acquired it in 2020. Once the government’s hope for a fourth national carrier after the T-Mobile-Sprint merger was approved, EchoStar’s wireless subsidiary is bankrupt and looking to auction off its radios.
“We haven’t cracked the code on how to be successful at the level we’d like to in the wireless business. In general, we’ve treaded water for four years now,” Ergen said on the company’s earnings call this month.
“We think we have some strategic initiatives going forward that will reinvigorate that part of our business,” he added.
Boost isn’t included in the bankruptcy, and EchoStar is planning to operate it largely on AT&T infrastructure as part of a $23 billion spectrum sale to the carrier. Boost also has a deal with T-Mobile, and is set to offer SpaceX direct-to-device service as part of a separate $19.6 billion spectrum sale.
The Wall Street Journal report said it wasn’t clear whether Ergen intended to combine MobileX and Boost.
While the agreements would need to be amended for one entity to take advantage of the situation, BestMVNO editor Joe Paonessa noted that with the addition of MobileX, Ergen would control entities that have contracts to sell service on all three national carriers’ networks, plus SpaceX’s satellite fleet.
MobileX founder Peter Adderton, who would also stay on as a minority shareholder according to WSJ, alluded to the benefits of combining those deals in an X post Monday.
“The next-generation wireless company shouldn’t be trying to become the fourth carrier,” he wrote. “It should become the connectivity layer that makes every network invisible seamlessly connecting consumers to the best available network, wherever they are, without them ever needing to know or care who owns it.”
When another user responded that a global mobile plan from SpaceX would be enticing if the satellite company could solve interoperability with a multitude of cellular networks, Adderton responded, “Well @mobileXus has the cellular part, Just need the satellite part,” followed by a smiling emoji.
MobileX declined to comment.
Adderton also founded Boost before it was ultimately acquired by Sprint and sold to Ergen as a condition of the T-Mobile merger. He has frequently criticized Ergen and EchoStar’s management of the brand online.
Boost ended the second quarter with 7.38 million mobile subscribers, many more than MobileX.
