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AT&T. Verizon. T-Mobile.

Three companies that spend billions of dollars competing for wireless customers are now working together on something that could help shape the next generation of mobile connectivity.

The carriers have entered into a joint venture focused on direct-to-device satellite connectivity. The goal is to help satellite and terrestrial wireless networks work together more effectively, expanding coverage into places where building traditional cellular infrastructure can be difficult or uneconomical.

At first, competitors collaborating might seem unusual. But cooperation has always existed underneath the competition in telecommunications. Carriers have relied on roaming agreements, network interconnection, technical standards and shared infrastructure for decades.

Now that cooperation is extending beyond the terrestrial network.

It's going to space.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode

Why Wireless Competitors Sometimes Work Together

AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile compete aggressively for customers, but that doesn't mean their networks exist entirely independently.

Wireless carriers have a long history of cooperation through roaming agreements, interconnection and common technical standards. Those arrangements help customers remain connected even when they're outside their carrier's primary network footprint.

Satellite connectivity introduces a new version of the same challenge.

The New Joint Venture Is Focused on Direct-to-Device Satellite

The AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile joint venture is designed to help expand direct-to-device satellite connectivity across the United States.

Instead of requiring a traditional satellite phone or dedicated terminal, direct-to-device technology aims to connect compatible mobile devices through satellites when terrestrial coverage isn't available.

The carriers plan to coordinate limited spectrum resources and establish common technical specifications that can make integration between satellite and terrestrial wireless networks easier.

The Goal Is to Reduce Wireless Dead Zones

Modern cellular networks cover enormous portions of the country, but universal terrestrial coverage is difficult.

Remote highways, rural communities, offshore locations, wilderness areas and other sparsely populated regions can be expensive to cover with traditional cellular infrastructure.

Satellite changes that equation.

It doesn't necessarily need to replace a terrestrial network. It can provide another connectivity layer in places where building towers and other infrastructure doesn't make economic sense.

Starlink Is Changing the Competitive Landscape

SpaceX is pushing Starlink beyond traditional satellite broadband through its Direct to Cell technology.

That matters to wireless carriers because satellite connectivity is beginning to overlap with services historically provided through terrestrial mobile networks.

As those capabilities improve, the distinction between a satellite company and a wireless company becomes less obvious.

Satellite Doesn't Have to Replace Cellular to Matter

It's easy to frame new technologies as replacement stories.

Satellite versus cellular. Wireless versus fiber. Fiber versus cable.

But connectivity increasingly doesn't work that way.

Satellite can become extremely valuable without replacing terrestrial wireless. It simply needs to solve problems the existing network struggles to solve efficiently.

That makes satellite potentially complementary and competitive at the same time.

Disasters Highlight the Value of Multiple Networks

Coverage isn't only a rural issue.

Natural disasters and other emergencies can damage terrestrial infrastructure or interrupt traditional connectivity. A satellite layer provides another potential path when towers, fiber connections or other infrastructure are unavailable.

The larger the role connectivity plays in everyday life, the more valuable network resilience becomes.

Fiber, Wireless and Satellite Solve Different Problems

Each technology has strengths.

Fiber provides capacity.

Fiber networks can move enormous amounts of data efficiently and form a critical part of the infrastructure connecting homes, businesses, wireless networks, data centers and other systems.

Terrestrial wireless provides mobility.

Cellular networks allow customers and devices to stay connected while moving across large geographic areas.

Satellite provides reach.

Satellite networks can extend connectivity beyond locations that terrestrial infrastructure can economically cover.

The future may not require choosing one.

It may depend on combining all three.

The Customer May Eventually Stop Caring Which Network Is Working

One of the most interesting possibilities is a future where the underlying network becomes increasingly invisible to the customer.

A device could primarily use terrestrial wireless, rely on fiber somewhere deeper in the network and switch to satellite when terrestrial coverage disappears.

The customer doesn't necessarily need to understand that architecture.

They simply need the connection to work.

Dealers Can Ask a Better Question

For Authorized Dealers, convergence creates an opportunity to rethink the customer conversation.

“Who's your wireless provider?” is useful, but it only tells you part of the story.

A potentially more valuable question is:

“Where does your connectivity stop working?”

That question can uncover remote locations, traveling employees, coverage gaps, backup requirements and other problems that aren't obvious when the conversation starts with a specific product.

 

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For roughly 150 years, one piece of technology quietly connected American homes and businesses: the telephone line.

What began with Alexander Graham Bell's experiments in 1876 eventually became one of the country's most important infrastructure systems. Copper lines spread from individual buildings to cities and ultimately across the United States. Homes were built around them. Businesses depended on them. And eventually, we connected far more than telephones to those wires.

Fire alarms, elevator emergency phones, security systems, fax machines, gates, emergency phones and other specialized equipment all found their way onto the traditional telephone network.

Now the copper network is being retired.

But the equipment connected to it hasn't necessarily disappeared with it.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode

It Started With a Voice Traveling Across a Room

In March 1876, Alexander Graham Bell successfully transmitted his famous message to Thomas Watson using an experimental telephone.

The technology was primitive, but the concept would transform communications. Within just a few years, telephone exchanges began connecting subscribers, creating the foundation of what would eventually become an enormous nationwide communications network.

The Phone Line Became Infrastructure

The telephone's real transformation came when it stopped being an individual invention and became a network.

Engineers developed switching systems, loading coils, amplification and other technologies that allowed calls to travel increasingly long distances. By 1915, Bell in New York and Watson in San Francisco participated in the ceremonial opening of transcontinental telephone service.

Copper wasn't simply carrying phone calls anymore. It had become infrastructure.

We Connected Much More Than Telephones

Once traditional telephone service became nearly universal, businesses found other uses for the network.

Elevator emergency phones, fire alarms, security systems, fax machines, building access systems, gates and industrial equipment could all rely on traditional POTS lines.

That's part of what makes today's transition complicated. A business owner may think they stopped depending on traditional phone lines years ago while equipment somewhere in the building is still quietly using one.

Why Copper Is Being Retired

Maintaining a massive aging copper network for a shrinking customer base becomes increasingly difficult to justify economically.

AT&T says fewer than 2% of eligible customers still use legacy copper voice technology and has outlined plans to exit copper across the majority of its wireline footprint by the end of 2029.

The FCC has also taken steps to streamline the retirement of aging copper infrastructure as telecommunications networks continue moving toward newer technologies.

The transition has been building for years. Now it is accelerating.

The Phone Line Is Dying. The Things Connected to It Aren't.

This is the central challenge of POTS retirement.

A business may no longer need an old-fashioned landline for everyday voice calls. But an elevator still needs a way to make an emergency call. A fire alarm still needs to communicate. A security system still needs connectivity.

Removing the copper doesn't automatically remove the need the copper was serving.

POTS Replacement Is More Than Regular VoIP

It can be tempting to think every traditional phone line can simply be replaced with ordinary internet-based phone service.

Specialized equipment can make the transition more complicated.

Life-safety systems, elevator phones, alarms and other devices may have specific connectivity, reliability, power and regulatory considerations. Businesses need to identify what equipment is actually using their existing lines before deciding how those connections should be replaced.

Ooma AirDial Keeps Legacy Equipment Connected

Ooma AirDial is designed as a POTS replacement solution for equipment that still depends on traditional analog telephone connectivity.

Its architecture can use LTE and wired broadband pathways and includes integrated battery backup. That allows existing equipment to continue operating without requiring the traditional copper line that originally connected it.

That's an important distinction. Modernizing the network doesn't always require replacing every piece of equipment attached to the old one.

Sometimes the bridge between old and new infrastructure is the opportunity.

StarDial Takes the Phone Line Somewhere New

Ooma's StarDial provides another interesting example of how the traditional phone experience can survive after the traditional phone network disappears.

Designed for Starlink customers in rural, remote and off-grid locations, StarDial provides conventional home-phone functionality over a Starlink internet connection.

The copper line isn't part of the equation anymore.

The need for voice communication still is.

The Same Need Can Outlive Multiple Technologies

The history of telecommunications is full of technologies replacing one another while the underlying customer need remains.

Copper replaced earlier limitations. Cellular networks made communication mobile. Fiber dramatically increased capacity. Satellite broadband is expanding connectivity into places terrestrial networks may struggle to reach.

The technology changes.

The customer's underlying problem often doesn't.

POTS Retirement Creates a Customer Conversation

For Authorized Dealers, the copper transition creates an opportunity to ask questions customers may not know they need to answer.

What is still connected to your traditional phone lines?

Do you have elevator phones? Fire alarms? Security systems? Fax machines? Gates or other building equipment?

And most importantly: what happens to those systems when the copper line disappears?

Identifying those dependencies before retirement happens can turn a technical infrastructure transition into a valuable customer conversation.

 

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Earlier this year, Lumen completed the $5.75 billion sale of its consumer fiber-to-the-home business across 11 states to AT&T. Looking at that transaction alone, it would be easy to assume Lumen was pulling back from fiber.

The bigger picture tells a very different story.

Lumen says it had deployed roughly 17 million intercity fiber miles by the end of 2025. The company is targeting 47 million by the end of 2028 and approximately 58 million by 2031. At the same time, Lumen is investing in Network-as-a-Service, cloud networking, automation, and software designed to make that physical infrastructure more flexible.

A major reason behind that strategy is artificial intelligence. AI infrastructure doesn't stop at GPUs and data centers. Massive amounts of information have to move between clouds, data centers, AI workloads, offices, and edge environments. That creates a different networking challenge, and Lumen is betting that the network itself needs to become more programmable to handle it.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode

Lumen Didn't Get Out of Fiber

Selling its consumer fiber-to-the-home assets to AT&T represented a significant change in Lumen's business, but it did not mean abandoning fiber infrastructure.

Lumen retained its national, regional, state, and metro backbone infrastructure. Its strategy is increasingly centered on enterprise connectivity and the infrastructure required to move enormous amounts of data between businesses, data centers, cloud environments, and AI workloads.

AI Needs More Than Compute

Much of the AI infrastructure conversation focuses on GPUs, computing capacity, electricity, and data centers.

But those systems also need to communicate with one another. Training, inference, cloud applications, enterprise systems, and distributed computing environments can generate enormous amounts of network traffic.

That makes connectivity another critical piece of AI infrastructure.

Enterprise Bandwidth Requirements Are Growing

Research from IDC cited by Lumen found that 37% of surveyed enterprises experienced bandwidth requirements increasing by more than 50% year over year.

Another 29% reported difficulty aligning their networks with AI workloads.

Those figures illustrate the challenge. Businesses aren't simply asking for faster internet connections. They're dealing with increasingly complex environments where traffic needs can change rapidly depending on applications, workloads, and where computing resources are located.

Lumen Is Dramatically Expanding Its Intercity Fiber Network

Lumen says it had approximately 17 million intercity fiber miles deployed at the end of 2025.

Its target is 47 million by the end of 2028 and approximately 58 million by 2031.

That expansion reflects a simple reality about digital infrastructure: software can make networks more intelligent, but enormous amounts of physical fiber are still required to move data between major computing environments.

Enterprise Traffic Is Becoming More Complex

A traditional business network might connect an office to the internet, several branches back to headquarters, and the organization to a data center.

Today's enterprise environment can involve AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, private data centers, SaaS platforms, remote offices, edge computing, and AI infrastructure simultaneously.

Data increasingly needs to move between those environments rather than simply traveling from an office to one centralized destination and back.

Network-as-a-Service Changes How Connectivity Is Purchased

Traditional enterprise connectivity can require ordering circuits, provisioning services, configuring equipment, and waiting for changes to be implemented.

Network-as-a-Service introduces a more flexible model.

Instead of treating network capacity as something relatively static, businesses can increasingly provision and manage connectivity through digital interfaces. Lumen reported surpassing 3,000 Network-as-a-Service customers during the second quarter of 2026, showing growing interest in this model.

Alkira Adds a Software Layer to Lumen's Network Strategy

Lumen's acquisition of cloud-networking company Alkira helps explain another piece of its strategy.

Alkira provides software for connecting cloud environments, data centers, sites, partners, and other infrastructure. Combined with Lumen's physical network, that creates the possibility of managing complex connectivity through a software control layer.

The fiber still carries the data. Software increasingly determines how that connectivity is configured and used.

Intelligent Internet Brings Cloud Economics to Connectivity

Lumen's Intelligent Internet offering pushes this idea further by allowing enterprise customers to scale bandwidth as their requirements change.

The New York Yankees provide an interesting example. Yankee Stadium requires significantly more network capacity around games and events than it does when the facility is closed.

Instead of permanently maintaining capacity for peak demand, a programmable network can potentially increase capacity when it's needed and reduce it afterward.

That's similar to what cloud computing did for compute resources: use more when you need more and scale back when you don't.

APIs Could Become Part of the Network

One of the biggest changes may be how businesses interact with connectivity itself.

APIs can allow applications and software platforms to request network resources without someone manually initiating every change. As networking becomes more programmable, connectivity can potentially respond to business and application requirements dynamically.

That moves the network closer to the operating model businesses already expect from cloud infrastructure.

Physical Infrastructure Isn't Going Away

Programmable networking doesn't eliminate the need for fiber.

It arguably makes physical infrastructure even more important.

AI workloads can generate tremendous amounts of data, and software cannot move that information without the underlying network capacity. The emerging model combines massive physical infrastructure with software capable of controlling it more dynamically.

 

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For years, satellite internet and traditional telecommunications occupied different parts of the connectivity market. Fiber and wireless networks served locations with terrestrial infrastructure, while satellite provided an alternative for places those networks couldn't easily reach.

That distinction is becoming much less clear.

AT&T Business has announced a strategic agreement with Amazon Leo that will integrate low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband into an enterprise connectivity architecture already built around fiber and 5G. Meanwhile, SpaceX continues expanding its ambitions for Starlink Mobile beyond traditional satellite service, including next-generation direct-to-cell technology and plans involving terrestrial wireless infrastructure.

Amazon is moving in a similar direction with direct-to-device capabilities of its own. Put those developments together and a larger trend emerges: fiber, wireless, and satellite are beginning to function less like competing categories and more like pieces of a broader connectivity ecosystem.

For Authorized Dealers, that shift could eventually change the customer conversation. The opportunity may become less about selling an individual connection and more about understanding where customers need connectivity, what happens when their primary connection fails, and which combination of technologies can keep them connected.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode

AT&T Business Is Bringing Satellite Into Its Connectivity Architecture

AT&T Business's agreement with Amazon Leo is an example of satellite connectivity becoming part of a broader enterprise networking strategy.

The planned offering combines Amazon Leo's low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband with AT&T's existing fiber and 5G capabilities. Rather than positioning satellite as an entirely separate service, the strategy treats it as another way to extend connectivity where terrestrial networks may be unavailable, impractical, or in need of backup.

Why Low-Earth-Orbit Satellite Is Different

Traditional satellite internet has historically faced challenges including higher latency because signals travel much greater distances to satellites positioned far above Earth.

Low-Earth-orbit, or LEO, networks operate much closer to the planet. That architecture can reduce latency and make satellite broadband practical for a broader range of applications.

As LEO networks continue developing, the distinction between a traditional broadband connection and a satellite connection could become less important to customers than whether the service delivers the connectivity they need.

Satellite Can Become Part of a Resilience Strategy

One of the most interesting applications isn't necessarily replacing fiber or 5G. It's supporting them.

A business might rely on fiber as its primary connection while using satellite as a backup path if that terrestrial connection becomes unavailable. Other organizations may need connectivity at temporary worksites, remote facilities, agricultural operations, or locations beyond traditional network coverage.

In those situations, different technologies can complement one another instead of competing for the same role.

Starlink Is Moving Toward the Traditional Wireless Market

SpaceX's ambitions for Starlink increasingly extend beyond providing broadband through dedicated satellite equipment.

The company's next-generation Direct to Cell strategy is designed around connecting standard mobile phones and IoT devices through satellites. SpaceX has also discussed terrestrial wireless infrastructure, further narrowing the traditional distinction between a satellite provider and a wireless carrier.

The direction is important even if the technology and business models continue evolving. Satellite companies are increasingly interested in parts of the connectivity market traditionally served by terrestrial wireless providers.

Amazon Leo Is Developing Direct-to-Device Connectivity

Amazon's satellite ambitions also extend beyond fixed broadband. Its plans include direct-to-device connectivity designed to support services such as voice, messaging, data, and emergency communications on compatible devices.

That creates another potential bridge between satellite networks and the traditional mobile ecosystem.

Instead of thinking about satellite solely as internet service for remote buildings, the industry is increasingly exploring how satellites can become another layer of mobile connectivity.

Connectivity Is Becoming More About the Customer Than the Network

Customers generally don't organize their technology needs around telecom industry categories.

A business owner doesn't necessarily wake up wanting fiber, 5G, or satellite. They want employees connected, applications working, transactions processing, equipment communicating, and operations continuing when something goes wrong.

That means the better sales conversation may increasingly begin with the customer's connectivity requirements rather than the technology being sold.

Remote Operations Create a Different Kind of Opportunity

Many businesses operate beyond a traditional office or storefront. Construction companies move between jobsites. Agricultural businesses operate across large rural areas. Logistics companies need connectivity while assets are moving. Other organizations have remote equipment, temporary locations, or facilities outside traditional network footprints.

Satellite connectivity can potentially expand the range of locations where those customers can stay connected.

For sales professionals, understanding where and how a customer's business operates may become just as important as knowing what's available at its primary address.

Redundancy Can Be as Important as Speed

Connectivity conversations often begin with speed, but businesses may have another critical requirement: what happens when the primary connection goes down?

A fast connection doesn't help if a business cannot process transactions, access cloud applications, communicate with customers, or operate essential systems during an outage.

As satellite, wireless, and fiber become easier to combine, redundancy and failover can become increasingly important parts of the business connectivity conversation.

Authorized Dealers Should Think Beyond Individual Products

Telecom convergence continues expanding the number of ways a customer can connect.

For Authorized Dealers, the long-term opportunity is to understand enough about these technologies to identify the customer's actual problem. Instead of beginning with “Which product can I sell?” the better questions may be: Where do you need connectivity? How critical is that connection? What happens if it fails? Where does your current network stop working?

Those questions can uncover needs that a product-first conversation might miss.

 

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When a company's core business stops growing, the first responses are often predictable. Raise prices. Reduce expenses. Automate more processes. Look for operational efficiencies. Those strategies can protect margins and buy valuable time, but eventually they reach a limit.

A company cannot indefinitely cut its way into a stronger growth position. At some point, leadership has to answer a more difficult question: What comes next?

Changes underway in local television provide a useful case study. As audiences shift toward streaming and the economics of traditional broadcasting become more difficult, companies like The E.W. Scripps Company are restructuring operations, changing staffing models, and exploring greater use of automation and artificial intelligence.

Those changes raise questions that extend far beyond broadcasting. How should businesses use technology when an established model is under pressure? When does efficiency strengthen the company, and when does it begin weakening the product customers valued? And how can an organization use the relationships, expertise, and distribution it already has to build its next source of revenue?

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode

Why Cost Cutting Eventually Reaches a Limit

Reducing expenses can make a business more efficient, especially when costs have grown faster than customer value. But every organization eventually reaches a point where additional reductions begin affecting capabilities, service quality, or the customer experience.

Efficiency can improve the economics of an existing model. It cannot create unlimited demand for that model.

The Business Lesson Behind Changes in Local Television

Local television is adapting to fundamental shifts in how audiences consume news and entertainment. Streaming, changing advertising habits, automation, and AI are forcing broadcasters to reconsider workflows that were designed for a very different media environment.

The broader lesson is relevant to any established industry. When customer behavior changes, preserving yesterday's operating model more efficiently may not be enough. Businesses also need to determine what their capabilities could become valuable for next.

When Efficiency Starts Weakening the Product

Not every expense is waste. Experienced employees, local knowledge, responsiveness, customer relationships, and operational flexibility can all look expensive when viewed strictly through a cost spreadsheet.

Cut too deeply and the business may become more efficient while simultaneously becoming less useful to its customers. The key is understanding which capabilities create genuine customer value before deciding what to eliminate.

AI Should Create Capacity, Not Just Reduce Headcount

Artificial intelligence can automate repetitive work, accelerate research, improve workflows, and reduce the time employees spend on low-value tasks. That creates an important strategic choice.

Businesses can use that capacity simply to reduce costs, or they can redirect it toward customer relationships, innovation, sales, and new sources of revenue. The second approach treats AI as a growth tool rather than only an efficiency tool.

Pivot Toward Problems You Already Understand

A successful pivot doesn't always mean abandoning the existing business and entering an unrelated industry. Often, the strongest opportunities are adjacent to what the company already does well.

Look at the assets already in place: customers, relationships, salespeople, knowledge, brand recognition, and distribution. Then ask what additional problem those same resources could help solve.

What Telecom Convergence Can Teach Other Industries

Telecom companies increasingly sell multiple forms of connectivity to the same customer. Wireless providers expand into home internet. Broadband companies add wireless. Providers look for ways to deepen an existing relationship instead of constantly starting from zero.

That principle can apply elsewhere. A company with trusted customer relationships may be able to offer adjacent services that solve additional problems for the same audience.

Could Local Media Sell More Than Advertising?

Local television sales organizations already speak with thousands of businesses about marketing, customer acquisition, and growth.

Those relationships could potentially support conversations about other business needs, such as internet connectivity, phone systems, or related technology services. The opportunity is not necessarily to become a completely different company. It is to ask what other problems an existing customer relationship puts you in a position to solve.

The Steve Ballmer and iPhone Lesson

When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, Microsoft already had an established position in mobile software. From the perspective of the existing market, Microsoft's position appeared logical and defensible.

Apple was approaching the problem differently. Instead of optimizing around the mobile market that already existed, it helped redefine what consumers expected from a phone.

The lesson isn't simply about one company winning and another losing. It's about the danger of evaluating the future entirely through the economics and assumptions of the present.

Build the Next Revenue Stream While You Still Can

The best time to experiment with a new business model is often while the existing one is still generating cash.

That gives companies room to test ideas, train employees, learn from customers, and make mistakes without betting the entire organization on an immediate transformation. Waiting until the original revenue stream is collapsing removes many of those advantages.