Telecom Intelligence: Week of October 6, 2025
The week Verizon hit reset. On October 6 the company abruptly named former PayPal chief Dan Schulman as CEO, replacing Hans Vestberg effective immediately, a board-driven change aimed at reversing subscriber losses at the largest US carrier by revenue. Two days later, AST SpaceMobile announced a definitive commercial agreement with Verizon to deliver space-based cellular service to Verizon customers starting in 2026, using Verizon's 850 MHz spectrum. All of it played out against a federal government shutdown that began October 1 and closed most of the FCC, furloughing the bulk of its staff and freezing filings, databases, and routine approvals across the industry.
Telecom Intelligence: Week of September 22, 2025
Succession and space dominated the week. On September 22 T-Mobile announced that Chief Operating Officer Srini Gopalan will become CEO on November 1, with Mike Sievert moving up to vice chairman after leading the carrier through its Sprint-era transformation into the industry's growth engine. Midweek, SpaceX asked the FCC for authority to launch up to 15,000 additional satellites dedicated to direct-to-cell service using the 2 GHz spectrum it is acquiring from EchoStar. And the commentary wave that followed Apple's eSIM-only iPhone Air crystallized into open industry debate about how quickly the physical SIM should disappear worldwide.