Jeff Baumgartner

EchoStar's proposed sale of spectrum to SpaceX for future, enhanced direct-to-device services drew several responses in the Federal Communications Commission docket. Some, such as Liberty Latin America (LLA), object strongly to the transaction, while others aren't objecting, but are still urging the FCC to treat the deal with scrutiny.

Fixed wireless access continued to rake in subscribers this year and put cable on its back heels. But there are lingering questions about whether FWA has the capacity to sustain its momentum in the years to come. While Q4 results won't be available for a few weeks, signs indicate that FWA stayed strong in 2025. In Q3, Verizon had a hiccup as subscriber growth slowed, but AT&T and T-Mobile more than picked up the slack. Here are the primary numbers through the third quarter of the year: 

AT&T has beefed up the performance of its Internet Air fixed wireless access product with 3.45GHz spectrum it's acquiring from EchoStar, but fiber remains the lead product in the company's broadband portfolio. "We're a fiber-first company," AT&T CEO John Stankey said at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.

Execs at EchoStar recently told Federal Communications Commission officials that the company originally had no plan to sell its spectrum, but that "severe uncertainty" fueled by an FCC investigation ultimately led EchoStar to sell swaths of spectrum to AT&T and 

It's clear that US cable operators are struggling to return to broadband subscriber growth amid slow housing formation, a sluggish moving market and competition from fiber and fixed wireless access (FWA). That's not going to change soon, according to new research. Amid ongoing network upgrades, tier 1 operators such as Comcast and Charter Communications have been trying to staunch subscriber losses with service bundles featuring mobile and multi-year price locks while expanding their footprints with new fiber network builds.

Fixed wireless access is still having its moment in the sun and applying heat to cable broadband competition.

Comcast has been pressing ahead with Project Genesis, a widescale hybrid fiber/coax network upgrade that will pave the way to DOCSIS 4.0, symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds and lower latencies. At the SCTE TechExpo in Washington, DC, Comcast's Elad Nafshi shared some updated stats on those upgrades, details about an emerging AI edge offering, and some thoughts about a quantum computing trial underway with a pair of partners. Virtualization is a centerpiece of the initiative.

US telephone companies of varied shapes and sizes will be retiring portions of their copper networks in the years to come. However, none are currently attacking copper phase-outs like AT&T. AT&T's initiative is simply much more massive in size and scope. As announced in 2024, AT&T is on a mission to shut down power-hungry and broadly inefficient copper-based services across the bulk of its US footprint by the end of 2029. AT&T is making progress. The Federal Communications Commission recently approved AT&T to discontinue legacy services in about 10% of its footprint.

The Federal Communications Commission is once again being asked to tread carefully around the shared CBRS band and the 6GHz band as the agency embarks on a mandate to free up and auction 800MHz of spectrum in the coming years via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The Starlink satellite broadband service remains largely relegated to rural areas and does not yet represent a major, direct competitor to wireline broadband service providers and fixed wireless access offerings in urban areas. But Starlink's expanding presence at retail sites—along with some recent price cuts—indicates the company isn't content for the service to be limited as a niche offering.