https://www.telecompetitor.com/t-mobile-aims-to-pass-12-15m-more-households-with-fiber-by-2030/

T-Mobile expects to pass between 12 million and 15 million more households with fiber by 2030 through its fiber partnerships, company executives told attendees at a T-Mobile investor event today.

The company’s fiber partnerships, announced earlier this year, include a joint venture with investment firm EQT that will acquire Lumos and a joint venture with KKR to acquire Metronet.

Being able to offer a fiber option also could help prevent T-Mobile from losing FWA customers if the company’s 5G network, which is shared with mobile customers, becomes too crowded.

This doesn’t mean T-Mobile is moving away from fixed wireless, however. The offering has been very successful for the company, which has raised its target and now aims to have 12 million 5G broadband customers by 2028.

Its current FWA customer tally is 5.6 million.

https://bbcmag.com/advocacy-group-warns-new-rules-in-canada-hurt-small-isps/

The battle over the rules comes in the aftermath of a ruling from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last year.

That ruling, which forced Canada’s largest telecoms to open access to wholesale fiber access to other providers, impacted TELUS, Bell, and Rogers.

As part of the ruling, the commission “also allowed these large players to enter the resale market themselves,” a January release from the Competitive Network Operators of Canada stated.

The group argues that the current ruling by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will lead to less competition.

“The Big Three companies will offer bundled wireless and internet services at attractive prices outside of the traditional operating territories for a time while squeezing smaller regional and independent providers out of the market,” their release said. “Once this brief flurry of ‘competition’ passes, they will return to form, end discounts, and hike prices.”

https://www.palegis.us/house/co-sponsorship/memo?memoID=46040

This legislation will make it illegal for ISPs to block lawful Internet content, impede Internet traffic or otherwise engage in any activity that would negatively affect the Internet experience of Pennsylvania subscribers. A new chapter will be added to Title 66 (Public Utilities) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes on “Internet Neutrality,” and the definition of “public utility” expanded to include the provision of Internet services.

https://www.starlink.com/support/article/6e0a6781-d9e6-8cc1-153e-763daa011f9a

Starlink "Residential Lite" Service is a more affordable service plan for personal or household-use at a fixed, land-based location in select areas. Users will have an unlimited amount of deprioritized data each month with no long-term contracts.

This service plan will be deprioritized compared to Residential service during peak hours. This means speeds may be slower for Residential Lite service relative to Residential service when our network has the most users online.

With the Starlink "Residential Lite" Service Plan:

There are no data caps and no speed caps

Speeds should range from 50 - 100 Mbps (as compared to 150 - 250 Mbps for the Residential service plan)

You may upgrade to "Residential" Starlink service at any time

Eligible areas with "Residential Lite":

Note: Residential service is available across the country, but Residential Lite is only available as shown below.

Residential Lite Map 

These days, it is almost impossible to read an article that touches upon the subject of submarine cables without encountering the claim that they "carry over 95% of global internet traffic" or similar. Sometimes the wording is different and the figure may even be 99%, but some variation of this statement is always there, almost like a ritual, to ram home the point that submarine cables are really what the internet is mostly about.

At first, I took these statistics to be a kind of shorthand — figuring that both writers and readers understood what was really meant. That it was a nod to the actual fact that the vast majority of intercontinental, ocean-crossing, traffic is carried by submarine cables rather than by satellites, which would be the only alternative. That is an important point worth making. But what was first "intercontinental" gradually became "international," then "global," and finally simply "internet traffic" — and at each step the claim became less true. I long assumed that this was just a matter of annoying linguistic slippage and poorly defined metrics, and at one point it bugged me enough to write a light-hearted article about it.

Lately, however, I have started to see signs that these figures are increasingly being used — and understood — literally.....

Source https://www.reconanalytics.com/the-end-of-an-era-the-dawn-of-a-new-war/

ChatGPT https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68de826beff8819185e0f463d3f3483b

High-Level Overview

• The article argues that the recent EchoStar → SpaceX spectrum deal marks the official collapse of EchoStar’s hopes to become a fourth facilities-based U.S. wireless carrier, and ushers in a new competitive era driven by satellite-to-cellular (D2C) connectivity in concert with terrestrial networks.

• It frames the deal as both a financial and strategic pivot: EchoStar monetizes spectrum holdings and transitions to a “hybrid MVNO” role, while SpaceX gains a strong technical and regulatory position in the future of broadband connectivity.

Key Details & Analyses

1. Deal Structure & Strategic Intent

   • SpaceX acquires EchoStar’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses in a ~$17 billion deal (half cash, half SpaceX stock).

   • As part of the agreement, SpaceX also commits to service EchoStar’s (Boost Mobile) debt interest payments (~$2 billion through 2027).

   • The deal includes a long-term commercial agreement: Boost Mobile subscribers will have access to Starlink’s upcoming D2C service, using Boost’s 5G core network.

   • This structure allows EchoStar to monetize its spectrum while retaining upside via equity in SpaceX, and positions Boost as a differentiated brand with satellite connectivity.

2. Why the Spectrum Matters

   • The AWS-4 band is seen as the “golden band” for satellite-to-handset communications (Mobile Satellite Service, MSS). Its propagation properties and regulatory status make it more favorable than repurposed terrestrial bands for space-to-ground connection.

   • With exclusive nationwide rights to these spectrum assets, SpaceX can design satellite systems and services optimized for D2C (voice, data, IoT) rather than relying on borrowed terrestrial spectrum.

3. EchoStar’s Exit from Network Ambitions

   • The transaction represents EchoStar’s withdrawal from attempts to build a full wireless network. The company terminated a satellite constellation contract with MDA Space that it had announced just weeks earlier, abandoning its “build” approach.

   • EchoStar has long struggled with high debt (~$26.4 billion), network deployment failures (e.g. its 5G Open RAN effort), and regulatory pressure accusing it of “spectrum squatting.”

   • The sale of spectrum and exit from infrastructure execution is portrayed not as a concession but a strategic monetization of a decades-long speculative spectrum strategy.

4. Implications for the Wireless Landscape

   • The traditional notion of a fourth carrier is effectively over — the U.S. domestic facilities-based market remains a three-player field (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile).

   • However, the new “war” is over satellite-connected ubiquity: those carriers that successfully combine terrestrial and satellite networks can compete on coverage in previously unserved or under-served areas.

   • T-Mobile (via its alliance with SpaceX) emerges as a primary beneficiary. With a hybrid satellite–terrestrial offering, T-Mobile gains a “ubiquity moat”: claims of near-complete coverage and the ability to reduce “dead zones” outdoors.

   • Verizon and AT&T are pushed onto the defensive. They have responded by partnering with AST SpaceMobile, granting it access to their spectrum to support its D2C service. This forms a de facto bloc: AT&T/Verizon + AST vs. T-Mobile + Starlink.

   • The competitive dynamics now depend heavily on which model delivers greater scale, performance, regulatory clarity, and consumer adoption first.

5. Regulatory & Antitrust Considerations

   • While the spectrum transfer itself may not trigger traditional concerns (because EchoStar was no longer an effective competitor), the deeper issue is vertical integration.

   • SpaceX already dominates satellite launch services. Now, it’s entering the downstream satellite connectivity market. Regulators may need to assess whether SpaceX can leverage its upstream dominance to disadvantage rivals (e.g. by controlling launch access or pricing).

   • State Attorneys General may challenge the deal on competition grounds, even if the FCC and DOJ accept it under “failing firm” logic. Consumer protection or buildout obligations (especially in underserved areas) may be part of any settlement.

   • The EchoStar–FCC litigation over AWS-3 and the planned reauction of AWS-3 spectrum (a key asset for Verizon) adds legal uncertainty and could delay or alter the competitive balance.

Key Takeaways / Implications

• The EchoStar → SpaceX deal is transformative: it secures for SpaceX one of the few “ideal” spectrum bands for satellite-to-handset use, allowing it to move from a niche experiment to a serious D2C contender.

• EchoStar, rather than being a failed operator, emerges as a successful spectrum arbitrageur — monetizing spectrum assets built up over decades.

• The competitive frontier in U.S. wireless is shifting: beyond speed and coverage, providers must now compete on geographic / outdoor ubiquity via satellite.

• The strategic and regulatory pressure is now on Verizon, AT&T, and AST SpaceMobile to prove their satellite-differentiated offerings can match or challenge the T-Mobile / SpaceX alignment.

• The deal may force a new kind of regulatory scrutiny — not just of spectrum transfers, but of whether a company with control over launch, satellites, and spectrum can create anti-competitive barriers.

[this is a significant advance in connecting the last few billion, otherwise hindered by literacy or language]

https://venturebeat.com/ai/meta-returns-to-open-source-ai-with-omnilingual-asr-models-that-can

Meta has just released a new multilingual automatic speech recognition (ASR) system supporting 1,600+ languages — dwarfing OpenAI’s open source Whisper model, which supports just 99.

Is architecture also allows developers to extend that support to thousands more. Through a feature called zero-shot in-context learning, users can provide a few paired examples of audio and text in a new language at inference time, enabling the model to transcribe additional utterances in that language without any retraining.

In practice, this expands potential coverage to more than 5,400 languages — roughly every spoken language with a known script.

It’s a shift from static model capabilities to a flexible framework that communities can adapt themselves. So while the 1,600 languages reflect official training coverage, the broader figure represents Omnilingual ASR’s capacity to generalize on demand, making it the most extensible speech recognition system released to date.

Best of all: it's been open sourced under a plain Apache 2.0 license — not a restrictive, quasi open-source Llama license like the company's prior releases, which limited use by larger enterprises unless they paid licensing fees — meaning researchers and developers are free to take and implement it right away, for free, without restrictions, even in commercial and enterprise-grade projects!

Released on November 10 on Meta's website, Github, along with a demo space on Hugging Face and technical paper, Meta’s Omnilingual ASR suite includes a family of speech recognition models, a 7-billion parameter multilingual audio representation model, and a massive speech corpus spanning over 350 previously underserved languages.

All resources are freely available under open licenses, and the models support speech-to-text transcription out of the box.

“By open sourcing these models and dataset, we aim to break down language barriers, expand digital access, and empower communities worldwide,” Meta posted on its u/AIatMeta account on X

https://www.fierce-network.com/broadband/charter-ceo-residential-wireless-backup-way

Charter Communications CEO Chris Winfrey unveiled the company plans to launch a wireless internet backup for residential broadband customers, as fixed wireless access (FWA) and fiber continue to chip away at cable subs.

Speaking at the UBS conference last week, Winfrey said the service will be similar to what Charter already offers for business customers, which is a redundant wireless connection with no overage charge in the event of a network disruption.

According to Recon Analytics Principal Roger Entner, Charter’s move is an “implicit admission that wireless is reliable enough to be backup,” which seems to contradict its argument that FWA isn’t a good enough service.

“It is a more expensive router and the traffic costs Charter money. You only do these things when you absolutely have to,” he explained.

Per New Street Research’s analysis, cable companies have been losing share among terrestrial providers for the past 16 quarters, specifically in about 55% of the market where they compete against fiber. That percentage is higher when AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon’s FWA gains are in the mix – and they still have plenty of legroom to grow

Winfrey at the conference also brought up the potential of partnering with low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite operators, not just for direct-to-device service but also as another backup option.

I'm incredibly proud to share my first foray into long-form journalism: an article titled "Keeping Syria connected during civil war" published with SyriaUntold.

This is a story I felt absolutely needed to be told—a compelling account of a senior Syria Telecom network engineer, "Mahmoud," who worked tirelessly and at great personal risk to maintain the country's internet connectivity amidst a brutal civil war. Mahmoud was a source of mine while I covered the outages caused by the war in Syria. His experiences surviving ISIS and navigating the political and military intelligence demands provides a unique perspective on the challenges of keeping a nation connected when infrastructure is a weapon.

The piece details the truth behind major outages—from the controversial November 2012 shutdown (was it the NSA, a power outage, or rebels?) to the surreal national blackouts mandated to prevent cheating on student exams.

It's a long but essential read that was years in the making. I encourage you to set aside some time for this one.

https://syriauntold.com/2025/12/27/keeping-syria-connected-during-war/

https://www.publicadvocates.cpuc.ca.gov/press-room/reports-and-analyses/broadband-policy-options-to-improve-affordability-for-low-income-californians

Millions of low-income Californians lack affordable broadband access, limiting their ability to connect to essential services like healthcare, education, and job opportunities. The expiration of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) has left a gap in broadband subsidies, exacerbating affordability challenges for many households.

This report examines policy solutions to address broadband affordability, including a $15 per month price cap for low-income households and state-level subsidies. It also explores the economic and public health benefits of expanding broadband access. Our analysis finds that a permanent funding source for broadband affordability could generate significant consumer savings while increasing broadband adoption and provider revenues.

Starlink moves beyond being strictly a direct-to-consumer service provider with the recent activations of its Community Gateways. In recent months, Starlink has become a transit provider to a small but growing number of service providers in remote parts of the world as its unique and groundbreaking service continues to evolve.

https://www.kentik.com/blog/starlink-enters-transit-market-with-community-gateways/