Big 3 Launch Satellite JV

T-Mobile Landscape Update · Oct 5, 2026 · 7m

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are making a rare show of unity: on October 1, they launched a satellite joint venture to finally bring direct-to-device satellite coverage to the mainstream—naming industry veteran Paul Roth as interim CEO. By pooling a slice of spectrum and setting shared technical specs, the Big 3 are trying to fast-track satellite access on regular phones, aiming to wipe out rural dead zones and keep networks up during disasters. If they pull it off, it would mean one standard for device makers like Apple and Google to adopt, so features could roll out faster and at lower cost…