Week of February 2–7, 2026Telecom Intelligence: Week of February 2, 2026
The week opened with AT&T closing its $5.75 billion purchase of Lumen's Mass Markets fiber business, a deal that adds more than one million fiber subscribers and four million passings in metros like Denver, Seattle, and Salt Lake City. The strategic message was blunt: the acquired network sits at roughly 25 percent penetration against AT&T's own 40 percent, so the work now shifts from building fiber to selling it. Midweek, Qualcomm posted record fiscal first quarter revenue of $12.3 billion but watched its stock slide as much as 10 percent after warning that a global memory shortage would squeeze the phones its chips go into. And all week, the three national carriers raced to finish one of the largest venue network builds ever attempted, turning Levi's Stadium into a proving ground ahead of Sunday's Super Bowl LX, with the same infrastructure set to serve the World Cup this summer.