Wireless Internet

I review the latest laptops and write about cutting-edge AI tools, but I'm based in Idaho, in farm country. My ground-based internet options are pitiful, and my daily work demands high speeds, low latency, and rock-solid reliability. So I've been using Starlink satellite internet for years now.

AT&T is streamlining its fiber broadband home internet options. Beginning June 7, customers can choose from four AT&T Fiber speed options: 300 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 5 Gbps. With the change AT&T retired its 100 Mbps plan, making 300 Mbps the entry point for fiber broadband service. Of the new pricing for fiber, Sarah Day, VP of Consumer for AT&T, said, “The simplification is part of a broader portfolio effort to make sure that we're creating plan options that match the diverse needs of consumers in the market and give more choice.

The simple story about wireless is a price war: multi-year price locks, free lines, cable carriers underselling the mobile network operators, and fixed wireless exceeding everyone's expectations. A more complex story is revealed by the MNOs' detailed earnings results. The core price of connectivity has been flat for nearly four years while household income has increased. Net net? The carriers turned themselves into discount storefronts for the services they sell. Reported wireless revenue per line looks like it climbed.

The AWS-3 auction kicked off with around 200 licenses formerly owned by EchoStar on the block. But with three rounds down, it appears that the auction anticipation—particularly around SpaceX’s involvement—has proved bigger than actual operator appetites. Bids totaled $59.3 million at the end of three rounds of bidding, with that number jumping only about $5 million from $54 million at the end of round two.

In a challenge brought by AT&T Services, Inc., BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division found the Charter Communications (Spectrum) claim that “Spectrum customers will receive free high-speed internet forever, with the purchase and maintenance of four mobile lines” supported, but recommended that Spectrum modify certain advertising for its Spectrum Home Internet “Free Internet Forever” offer to clearly and conspicuously disclose material terms of the offer. AT&T and Spectrum compete in the home internet and wireless services markets.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr welcomed the start of the first FCC spectrum auction in four years. The AWS-3 auction will offer 200 5G-grade spectrum licenses that laid fallow for more than a decade. The license areas included in this auction are home to over 100 million consumers across 48 states, two US territories, and the Gulf of America. They include major markets like New York, Chicago, Boston, Tampa, and Charlotte. Bidding in the AWS-3 auction, formally designated as Auction 113, began the morning of June 2.

Maps of cellular internet coverage by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon show a typical rural story of cellular coverage in a rural county in Illinois. Cell carriers rarely share towers, and each carrier is on different towers and has different coverage. All three carriers have areas where they have no 5G coverage, and somebody subscribed to any one carrier in this county would find a lot of dead zones. All three carriers have little or no coverage in the northwest sector.

The Federal Communications Commission has opened a docket that periodically looks at ways to improve the FCC’s broadband and cellular maps. As part of that docket, Chairman Brendan Carr issued the following statement: "On the mobile side, 96.8 percent of locations have access to mobile 5G services of at least 7/1 Mbps." To put that into perspective, there are roughly 116.7 million total passings counted in the FCC maps, and the Chairman is saying that all except 3.7 million have good access to 5G.

The Mary S. Biesecker Public Library in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, created the Library Internet Checkout Program in partnership with T-Mobile, allowing residents to “checkout” home internet service like they would a book.

The Federal Communications Commission and EchoStar Corporation—parent company of DISH Network—reached a settlement agreement on May 28, 2026, resolving a long-running debt stemming from DISH subsidiaries Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless defaulting on winning bids from FCC Auction 97, a 2015 spectrum auction. The defaulted bids created a potential liability of roughly $3.95 billion, covering both the bid deficiency payments ($3.44 billion) and an additional 15% penalty ($515.6 million).