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Your Wireless Connection
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WIA – A new economic impact study warns that EchoStar/DISH’s decision to unilaterally walk away from its long‑term tower lease obligations could trigger severe financial harm across the U.S. wireless ecosystem, hitting not just infrastructure providers large and small, but consumers, small businesses, and the nation’s competitiveness. The Brattle Group analysis finds that DISH’s default represents a 5-7% annual revenue shock to tower companies nationwide. To recover the loss and offset increased financing costs, tower companies are faced with the need to increase rents for remaining carriers by 6–11%, costs that would ultimately flow through to consumers in the form of higher wireless bills. Read More
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AT&T – AT&T marks the 150th anniversary of the first phone call by re-affirming its leadership in investing in U.S. telecommunication infrastructure through 2030. The company is committing more than $250 billion over five years to build the best and largest network, with the capabilities and resilience required for the next era of innovation and economic growth. Read More
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Fierce Network – At Mobile World Congress 2026, Ericsson leaned into that phrase we keep hearing everyone using for their AI strategy — AI for networks and networks for AI. The vendor says that phrase will define the next phase of telecom evolution: using AI to improve networks today while prepping networks to support the demands of AI-driven applications tomorrow. Read More
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PCMag – For now, execs at traditional carriers like T-Mobile aren’t worried about competing with Starlink, arguing that they work best as partners given SpaceX’s network limitations. Read More
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Wireless Estimator – Building roughly 6,000 new macro towers—about 1,200 per year—would equal five to six years of typical U.S. tower construction and could extend 5G coverage to roughly 99% of Americans, according to T-Mobile CTO John Saw. Read More
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American Tower – As San Francisco prepared to welcome football fans from around the world for the Big Game, American Tower successfully completed a major 5G network infrastructure upgrade at the Moscone Center — enabling seamless connectivity for the league’s premier fan experience. Read More
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WIA Innovation & Technology Council – By John Kuzin, SVP of Spectrum Policy and regulatory counsel, Qualcomm – Wireless infrastructure and the spectrum it uses are critical to the successful growth of AI. The conversation around AI often overlooks a key foundational layer of the AI stack – the wireless connectivity layer. Read More
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