Two days after losing a satellite on the launch pad of ambition, AST SpaceMobile got the piece of paper it has chased for years: on April 21 the FCC granted commercial authority for the company to deliver direct-to-device cellular broadband from space across the United States, clearing a 248-satellite constellation and moving satellite-to-phone service from experiment to product. The same week, AT&T opened big-carrier earnings season with strong first quarter results built on bundled fiber and wireless, and Nokia closed out the vendor picture with its own first quarter report. Regulatory green lights, healthy carrier economics, and a recovering equipment market: the industry's spring is running warmer than its winter did.
The week the EchoStar saga truly began. On May 9, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent letters to EchoStar opening reviews of both its 5G buildout compliance and its mobile satellite spectrum rights in the 2 GHz band, following months of SpaceX filings arguing the spectrum sits underused. The letters landed on the same day EchoStar reported first-quarter results showing widening losses and continuing subscriber declines at Boost Mobile, a collision of regulatory and financial pressure that would define the company's entire year. The week opened with a quieter milestone: Microsoft retired Skype on May 5 after 23 years, closing the chapter on the service that first taught the world to route calls over the internet.
Earnings week drew the industry's new battle lines in ink. Verizon opened April 22 with record first-quarter EBITDA but a stinging loss of 289,000 postpaid phone subscribers, the price of its pricing discipline in a promotion-soaked market. T-Mobile closed the week reporting its best first quarter ever for postpaid additions, then spent its earnings call unveiling new Experience plans with a five-year price guarantee, weaponizing price certainty against rivals raising rates. In between, AT&T delivered steady wireless and fiber growth and became the first carrier to quantify tariff exposure in its guidance, telling investors it could absorb expected device cost increases without changing its outlook.
Deregulation got a battle cry. On March 12 FCC Chairman Brendan Carr opened a docket bluntly titled Delete, Delete, Delete, inviting the public to nominate any Commission rule for elimination and signaling the most aggressive deregulatory push in the agency's modern history. The market week belonged to Verizon's candor: at a March 11 investor conference the carrier warned that first-quarter subscriber growth would be soft amid a brutal promotional environment, knocking its shares down more than 7 percent and dragging the whole telecom sector with them. And Crown Castle completed its retreat to a pure tower company, agreeing March 13 to sell its fiber and small cells businesses to Zayo and EQT for a combined 8.5 billion dollars.