Dish's parent company, EchoStar, is selling a broad swath of its 5G spectrum licenses to AT&T for $23 billion. Under the deal, the Dish-owned Boost Mobile will primarily operate using AT&T's growing network - a move that marks "the end of the road for the fourth carrier," says Roger Entner, founder and lead analyst at Recon Analytics.
As part of T-Mobile's deal to acquire Sprint in 2019, the Department of Justice stipulated that another company must replace it as the fourth major wireless carrier. Dish came forward to acquire Boost Mobile from Sprint, paying $1.4 billion to purchase the budget carrier and other prepaid assets. Since then, D …