The year opened with satellite connectivity dominating both the regulatory docket and the show floor. On January 9, the FCC authorized SpaceX to deploy 7,500 additional Gen2 Starlink satellites, doubling the approved constellation to 15,000 and granting access to new Ku, Ka, V, and W band frequencies. Days earlier at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, direct-to-device connectivity was everywhere, with Skylo named a CES Innovation Awards honoree for bringing two-way satellite emergency messaging to smartwatches, no phone required. Back in Washington, the FCC circulated a draft order on January 8 that would open the 6 GHz band to a new class of high-power geofenced unlicensed devices, a move with real consequences for Wi-Fi offload and IoT deployments.
A quieter week on the surface, but the signals underneath were about where enterprise connectivity money is flowing. Ericsson told RCR Wireless on December 9 that it now counts private 5G deployments across hundreds of enterprise customers, with roughly 95 percent using capabilities only 5G can deliver, a pointed contrast with rivals retreating from the segment. On December 10, Fierce Network announced the winners of its 2025 Innovation Awards, a useful map of where the industry thinks the next competitive edges sit. And on December 11 the FCC released the tentative agenda for its December 18 open meeting, headlined by a Third Report and Order tightening the rules that give VoIP providers direct access to phone numbers, the agency's latest move against robocall infrastructure.