March closed with money and spectrum moving toward the next platforms. Bharti Airtel announced a $1 billion investment round in its Nxtra data center arm led by Alpha Wave Global with Carlyle and Anchorage participating, valuing the business around $3.1 billion and aiming the proceeds squarely at AI-driven capacity across India. The FCC, one week after its copper order, opened a proposed rulemaking on spectrum for emerging space operations, from orbital transfer vehicles to lunar relays, including possible space-to-ground use of the 2320 to 2345 MHz band. And the GSA published its State of the Market report on April 2, giving the industry its scorecard on global 5G deployment as attention shifts to 5G Advanced and early 6G positioning.
Year-end week delivered a victory lap, a rocket launch, and a regulator's scorecard. T-Mobile published its Un-carrier Unwrapped retrospective on December 22, claiming America's best network title, its strongest quarter in over a decade, and 90 million T-Life installs under new CEO Srini Gopalan. On December 23, AST SpaceMobile launched BlueBird 6 from India, a roughly 2,400 square foot phased array three times larger than its first-generation satellites and the largest commercial communications array ever sent to low Earth orbit. The same day, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr published a list of 75 wins delivered in 2025, confirming among them new frameworks allowing satellite operators to run direct-to-cell services at higher power levels.