The industry got its new referee and lost its biggest pending deal in the same week. Donald Trump named Brendan Carr, the FCC's senior Republican and author of its Project 2025 chapter, as chairman, ending two weeks of speculation and starting the countdown on the Biden-era agenda. By Friday, DirecTV had walked away from its acquisition of Dish after bondholders refused the haircut the deal required, Comcast confirmed it will spin off most of its cable networks into a separate company, and the White House summoned carrier executives to face the Salt Typhoon crisis directly.
Monday, September 30 packed a quarter's worth of news into one day. A nationwide Verizon outage left over 100,000 customers — many staring at 'SOS' on their iPhones — and drew an immediate FCC investigation. AT&T finally severed its television era, selling its remaining 70% of DirecTV to TPG for $7.6 billion, hours before DirecTV announced it would absorb EchoStar's Dish TV and Sling — consolidating a shrinking satellite-TV industry into one company. T-Mobile bought peace with the FCC over years of data breaches for $31.5 million, half earmarked for security upgrades. And Verizon quietly monetized more of its physical empire, handing 6,339 towers to Vertical Bridge for $3.3 billion.