The year changed and so did two decades of regulatory architecture. On January 2 the Sixth Circuit struck down the FCC's net neutrality rules outright, ruling in the first major post-Chevron test that the agency never had the authority to classify broadband as a telecom service, and ending a twenty-year seesaw unless Congress writes it into law. Days earlier, AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen declared their networks clear of Salt Typhoon, statements that landed awkwardly against a White House count that was still climbing. And Vodafone closed the books on its European retreat, completing the 8 billion euro sale of Vodafone Italia to Swisscom on New Year's Eve.
The week before the election, four storylines that would define 2025 all surfaced at once. A Sixth Circuit panel heard oral arguments on the FCC's net neutrality rules and pressed hard on whether the agency had the statutory authority at all — foreshadowing January's decision to strike them down. Comcast used its earnings call to float spinning off its cable networks, the first domino in the great linear-TV unbundling. Apple committed $1.5 billion to Globalstar, converting iPhone satellite features from a supplier contract into semi-ownership of a constellation. And Charter's 545,000 new mobile lines showed cable's MVNO machine still compounding inside the big carriers' own networks.
T-Mobile closed out carrier earnings season the way it has for years — on top, with 777,000 postpaid phone additions and raised guidance. Then the week turned dark for the chip sector: Intel announced 15,000 layoffs, suspended its dividend, and watched its stock suffer the worst single-day collapse since 1974, raising hard questions about America's flagship chipmaker just as CHIPS Act money flows. And the Sixth Circuit stayed the FCC's net neutrality rules outright, wielding the Supreme Court's new anti-deference doctrine in its first big telecom test.