Wireless Internet

AT&T unveiled its new Build-A-Plan wireless offer, starting at $15/month, where customers can adjust their mobile and hotspot data to fit their needs on a month-to-month basis. The plan doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles that many high-end plans offer, which is the point.

SpaceX’s highly anticipated S-1 filing is the latest reminder that Starlink Mobile’s ambitions go beyond filling dead zones in mostly rural areas. “While we expect Starlink Mobile service today to be most impactful for customers in remote areas uncovered by terrestrial mobile networks … we will compete to be the preferred connectivity experience to our customers no matter where they are located, whether in rural, suburban, or urban areas,” SpaceX said in the filing. Those ambition

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that Secretary Howard Lutnick has appointed Sheriff Michael A. Adkinson, Jr., to serve as Chairman of the Board of the First Responder Network Authority. Adkinson is the Sheriff of Walton County (FL) and was appointed to the FirstNet Authority Board in 2024. He has served as the Acting Chairman of the FirstNet Authority Board since September 2025. Adkinson has served as Walton County Sheriff since 2009 and was most recently reelected in 2024.

More than 170 rural students in the Española Public Schools now have access to high-speed internet following the completion of a state-funded broadband project in Rio Arriba County (NM).

Wireless and AI are rapidly evolving together with greater reliance upon each other to drive future innovation. To secure U.S. leadership, policymakers should view these technologies through the lens of one unified strategy. AI requires wireless networks to move data, help coordinate real-time decisions, and operate effectively with the physical world. In turn, wireless networks rely on AI to manage the surging complexity and record traffic driven by AI’s own insatiable data demands. This convergence should inform our nation’s wireless and AI strategy.

The three nationwide mobile network operators spent the Q1 2026 earnings cycle saying no to a Starlink MVNO. On May 12, the Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX's purchase of 65 megahertz of nationwide Direct-to-Device spectrum under tech-neutral performance obligations. Four days later, the wireless carriers announced a satellite joint venture without a name and with a lot of intentions. The market has been reading the JV as a defensive moat against SpaceX. It is not.

While headlines focus on massive hyperscale data centers in remote locations, a quieter but significant infrastructure shift is unfolding closer to home. Smaller AI computing centers are beginning to appear deep in America’s towns and cities—at existing telecommunications facilities, at the base of cell towers, and even at power substations—often without local and state officials realizing it.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau granted the applications filed by Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, and Array Digital Infrastructure. The Bureau found that granting these applications serves the public interest. The proposed spectrum assignment does not trigger the FCC’s total spectrum screen, and while it triggers enhanced factor review in 98 local markets, the Commission finds that the likelihood of competitive harm is low.

Sen Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) introduced the Outage Refund Guarantee Act, legislation to ensure consumers are fairly compensated for the time they are without the service they rely on. The Outage Refund Guarantee Act would require cable, DBS, internet, and telephone providers to issue credit for any service outage lasting more than four hours to ensure consumers are properly compensated for the service they pay for. Specifically, the Outage Refund Guarantee Act:

What’s clear from the direct-to-device (D2D) joint venture announcement by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon is: not much. It certainly raises more questions than it answers. For example: Is this JV real if there’s no definitive agreement yet? How will SpaceX respond? Will the Department of Justice (DoJ) allow it? When does T-Mobile’s exclusivity agreement with SpaceX/Starlink expire? And how big is the D2D market going to be once Amazon Leo, AST SpaceMobile, and others join Starlink?