Dish, the parent company of Dish Network, Sling TV, and both Boost Mobile and Ting as of last year, is still very much in the M&A mood. It's just purchased Republic Wireless, yet another Mobile Virtual Network Operator. News of the acquisition was posted to Republic's forums by CEO Chris Chuang.

Republic made a name for itself a little less than ten years ago (the introductory post was written by Artem!) with a unique "hybrid" model that prioritized Wi-Fi networks even for calls, and used expensive mobile data and minutes sparingly. In a lot of ways it was a precursor to systems like Google's own Fi. Republic has remained a popular choice among the frugal thanks to low-cost, low-data plans and wide support for unlocked phones. A purchase price for the company wasn't mentioned.

Chuang assures Republic Wireless customers that the new ownership won't change anything operational in the short term, but says that the company "expect[s] to have exciting new products and services available in the future." For the time being, all plans and devices will remain active.

Dish picked up Boost Mobile as its former parent company Sprint was merging with T-Mobile last year, and later purchased Ting, another MVNO that focuses on cheap, Wi-Fi dependent plans. Both Boost and Ting have remained separate products with little obvious connection to their parent company, contrasting with T-Mobile's more overt adoption of Metro (nee MetroPCS) as "Metro by T-Mobile."