DISH Network had informed the state that it plans to lay off another 157 workers by early March, two months after it said it would let go of a larger group of 499 workers.
The cuts will happen at the company’s headquarters at 9601 S. Meridian Blvd. in Douglas County, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter filed with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Monday.
“The first employee notices are expected to occur during the 14-day period starting Jan. 8, with separations to occur in the 14-day period starting March 8,” wrote Kaylee Hyman, DISH senior corporate counsel.
As was the case in the November layoff, most of the job cuts are concentrated on the wireless side of the business, which the company has heavily invested in to create a fourth nationwide 5G cellular network from scratch.
The largest number of jobs, at 80, represent senior wireless representatives, followed by another 25 intermediate customer service and technology representatives, 15 relationship repair specialists and a dozen advanced customer service representatives.
The layoffs announced in November were slated to wrap up by Jan. 7 and 8, but judging by Monday’s notice, more cuts were needed.
DISH had roughly 6,000 employees in Colorado as of August, with about 2,000 of those focused on wireless. The two cuts represent a significant reduction in its wireless workforce.
DISH shares are down 58% in value over the past year, but they have rebounded from a 25-year low of $3.21 a share set in early November to the upper $5 a share range.
The company has been scrambling to find more capital so it can continue to build out its own 5G network and rely less on AT&T and T-Mobile to carry traffic, which adds to its costs. To that end, Echostar Corp., a sister company with a stronger balance sheet, acquired DISH Network at the end of the year.
DISH launched its new OPEN RAN 5G network in Denver in November, allowing Boost Infinite and Boost Mobile customers to access its faster speeds. And while the broader network was mostly built out last summer, reaching 70% of the U.S. population, it faces the more intensive work of providing services in more difficult-to-reach areas.
Subscriptions to the company’s new Boost Infinite service have come in slower than expected, and DISH has struggled with declines in both pay-TV and existing wireless subscribers, resulting in a larger-than-expected loss of $139 million in the third quarter.
The company was carrying $20.4 billion in debt in the third quarter and reported $3.1 billion in liquid assets on hand.
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