Weekly Telecom Intelligence: September 20–26, 2026
This week saw major consolidation and midband positioning that will reshape wholesale options: Iridium shareholders approved the Rocket Lab acquisition, advancing a merger of satellite network and launch capabilities. T-Mobile filed two‑year experimental licenses to test in 2.7GHz and 4GHz, while AT&T moved to lease 55 3.45GHz licenses and asked the FCC to double device transmit power to 2 Watts. Vendor consolidation and new IoT connectivity options also accelerated, with Airspan absorbing multiple Cambium product lines, Hubble opening Bluetooth to satellite connectivity, and NTT DOCOMO adding SGP.32 eSIM support.
Telecom Intelligence: Week of August 25, 2025
The week EchoStar chose retreat. On August 26 AT&T agreed to acquire roughly 50 MHz of nationwide spectrum from EchoStar, about 30 MHz at 3.45 GHz and 20 MHz at 600 MHz, for approximately 23 billion dollars in cash, sending EchoStar shares up 70 percent and beginning the dismantling of the fourth national network. As part of the arrangement EchoStar announced a hybrid mobile network operator agreement making AT&T the primary network partner for Boost Mobile, and framed the transactions as steps toward resolving the FCC inquiries that had put its licenses at risk. Meanwhile the FCC's satellite broadband spectrum-sharing proceeding closed its reply comment window on August 27, advancing the rules rewrite that will govern how constellations share the sky.