#telecom

What a joke ... the race to the bottom is over and AT&T won

https://www.wral.com/consumer/5onyourside/utility-boxes-repair-att-september-2025/

Message from Sarah Bryant dated 9/4/202

Dear People Leaders,

For those of you who don’t know me, I joined two months ago as Executive Vice President, Finance, Telecom, and my team and I have been working across the organization as we look to strengthen our financial profile and help us to transform how we operate to ensure the long-term health and success of Optimum. It’s incredible to see the amazing work done to date by all of you and your teams and I’d like to share some enhancements to our fiscal discipline measures.

Embracing Financial Discipline with an Owner’s Mindset

First and foremost, I want to emphasize the importance of operating with an owner's mindset when it comes to financial stewardship. Every employee — regardless of role or level — must approach spending decisions as if each dollar were their own. This ownership mentality is fundamental to ensuring our company's long-term financial health and sustainable growth.

To this end, we are asking all leaders to be deliberate and prudent with our spending by proactively managing expenses. This includes an immediate pause on non-essential discretionary travel and entertainment (T&E) spending. I recognize that this is a delicate balance – it's critical that we continue to run the business, manage our business partners and vendors, and drive teammate performance. The goal isn't to stop spending entirely but to be thoughtful and judicious. Please critically evaluate T&E costs — including business travel, conferences, offsites, and client entertainment — to ensure they are directly tied to immediate business need or revenue generation. Where possible, please find alternative, cost-effective solutions or postpone less critical spending.

The pause of discretionary spending also applies to year-end events. We deeply value our employees' contributions and recognize the importance of year-end celebrations, and the ask is for leaders to find impactful ways to show appreciation and foster a positive and grateful environment for our dedicated teams in a prudent way. Check out the Recognition Toolkit in the Leader’s Zone on One, which includes meaningful approaches to employee recognition and celebrations to thank our teammates for their incredible contributions.

If you have a question regarding the T&E policy, events or other spend, please do not hesitate to reach out to your finance business partner for clarification.

Comprehensive Review of Spending Controls

To strengthen our financial governance and ensure we're positioned for long-term success, we will also be conducting a thorough review of our vendor invoice approval platforms and all PCard usage and related policies. This review will assess spending, strengthen controls, and implement procedures that uphold our fiscal responsibility. There will be additional communication regarding these changes in the next two weeks for those directly impacted.

Moving Forward with Purpose as ONE Optimum
These efforts support building a culture of financial stewardship that will serve us well in all economic conditions. Thank you for your attention and leadership. When every employee thinks like an owner, making prudent decisions about resource allocation, we create a more resilient, financially healthy and sustainable organization.

Sincerely,

Sarah Bryant
EVP, Finance, Telecom

Is there any guidance yet on that date? Thanks.

https://www.phonearena.com/news/elon-musk-spacex-echostar-verizon-spectrum_id173967

Anyone heard anything on the lumen fiber buyout? Will we being doing the installs.

BRAKING NEWS! All T-Zones and myFaves team members will be impacted.

So I have a couple of senior folks who work for Wall St. firms , and they have given me a heads up that Q1 is going to be a major hemorrhaging of white collar jobs,sectors mostly affected are big pharma, telecomm ( including at T. , VZ and CISCO) , and finance. .

Basically, companies are already pricing in the rate cut, but the unemployment numbers coupled with tarrifs effects and a expected weak holiday season is going to cause this.. so better save your nuts this winter..

I think the interviewer enjoyed throwing management some curveballs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZSsfTnQPIE

The description says “Tri-state area” but at least some of these employees are out of Blue Bell, PA.

If you ever wanted an example of what poor leadership looks like, just look around here. Confusion everywhere, mixed messages from the top, no clear plan, and a workforce that’s demoralized because nobody trusts the people in charge. This isn’t just bad luck, it’s the result of bad leadership.

https://cordcuttersnews.com/the-end-of-dsl-traditional-home-phone-att-gains-fcc-approval-shut-down-its-copper-dsl-phone-service-in-more-areas/

Verizon stock falls after EchoStar announces spectrum sale to SpaceX.
Verizon's Sampath: U.S. must seize 6G moment now. Because 5G is going so well. I'm sure BR has a plan?

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/tmobile-att-verizon-fall-after-echostar-announces-spectrum-sale-to-spacex-93CH-4228969

T-Mobile and other wireless carriers tumble on SpaceX’s purchase of spectrum licenses from EchoStarT-MobileTMUS $237.74 (0.23%) is the worst-performing S&P 500 constituent in early trading, off 5.2% as of 8:27 a.m. ET.
The reason why? SpaceX purchased a pair of spectrum licenses from EchoStarSATS $81.50 (0.03%) for roughly $17 billion, and as such, SpaceX might no longer need to rely as heavily on T-Mobile going forward.

In August 2022, T-Mobile and SpaceX announced a partnership in which the carrier would help SpaceX’s Starlink provide mobile connectivity from space. The first such satellites launched in January 2024, and T-Mobile ran an ad during the 2025 Super Bowl touting a beta trial of Starlink-powered satellite texting.

EchoStar's loser Chairman Charlie Ergen was forced to give up pursuing his dream of establishing Boost Mobile as the 4th U.S. facilities based competitor due to horrendous Marketing and a lack of funds due to Dish Network flaming out. Couldn't happen to a nicer and more deserving guy as Charlie's brought a lot of hardship into others lives over the years!

Things go from bad to worse as Boost Mobile reduces its head count

500 Boost network employees get sacked as the company loses the opportunity to be one of the "Big 4" U.S. carriers.

Sep 03, 2025, 6:37 PM

Lately, things have been going bad fir EchoStar. After it purchased Dish Network on the last day of 2023, EchoStar-owned Boost Mobile was supposed to be working on replacing Sprint as the fourth facilities based wireless carrier replacing Sprint. The latter had been gobbled up by T-Mobile in 2020 leaving only three major U.S. carriers and both the FCC and DOJ frowned on the reduced competition.
FCC has been accusing EchoStar of being a spectrum speculator

The FCC and Chairman Brendan Carr have been pushing EchoStar, accusing the company of hoarding its spectrum holdings, hoping to sell the licenses for big profits. This constant pressure from Carr led EchoStar to sell 50MHz of spectrum to AT&T for $23 billion. AT&T acquired 20MHz of 600MHz low-band airwaves that will be used by AT&T for its nationwide 5G service called AT&T 5G. The 30MHz of 3.45GHz mid-band spectrum acquired by AT&T will be used for AT&T's faster AT&T 5G+ service.

A Dish Wireless storefront.
Dish Wireless became Boost Mobile last year. | Image credit-Dish Network

Without the spectrum it sold, EchoStar's hope of having its Boost Mobile brand join Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T as the Big Four in the U.S. went up in smoke. It's not as though Boost Mobile has been thriving. The number of subscriber declined form the 9 million Boost had at the time it was purchased by Dish Network. Currently, Boost is believed to have 7.4 million customers, a 17.8% decline.

After losing its spectrum, Boost will become a hybrid MNO, or a hybrid Mobile Network Operator. Boost subscribers will use AT&T's network primarily although they also will have access to the T-Mobile network. AT&T will provide the base stations, radios, radio access network (RAN) software and spectrum frequencies. EchoStar will handle the billing, deliver the network core, and and provisioning software.

newsletter-background-image
Receive the latest mobile news
Enter your e-mail

By subscribing you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
Today, the story got uglier as EchoStar let go 500 employees who were working in the company's U.S. wireless network deployment and engineering groups. EchoStar's wireless network was originally known as Dish Wireless and became Boost Mobile after a rebranding last year. In a statement, EchoStar confirms that pressure from the FCC led to the decision to sell its spectrum to AT&T. It still has 76 MHz of airwaves to sell and there is speculation that Verizon, T-Mobile and SpaceX are interested.
EchoStar hopes to retire some debt with some of the proceeds of its spectrum sale

EchoStar revealed its motives for the reduction in head count. "Due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) actions, the recent announcement of EchoStar selling spectrum licenses to AT&T significantly impacts the company’s 5G wireless network deployment unit. With elements of our network to be decommissioned over time, the company will eventually not house a wireless network deployment workforce. After thorough review of our business operations moving forward, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our network deployment workforce. The majority of impacted employees were notified on Thursday, August 28."

Will Boost Mobile make it as an MNO?
Yes. It still has a well-known name.
24.79%
No. It won't succeed not being a Big 4 carrier.
53.31%
It's too early to tell.
21.9%
Votes 242

EchoStar President and CEO Hamid Akhavan said that the deal with AT&T will allow EchoStar to retire some debt and help fund its current businesses. It will, as noted, be a hybrid mobile network operator and a direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service provider. The executive alsio said on LinkedIn last week, "This is an important step toward resolving the FCC’s recent inquiries and demonstrates our commitment to continued innovation and success."

Because Boost Mobile will continue to exist, just not as a fourth facilities-based carrier, the spectrum sell-off impacts the retail part of the company a lot less than the network part of the business. The EchoStar spokesperson reiterated that there are no changes to the Boost Mobile brand. This is unfortunate for Boost Mobile because many blamed Boost's struggles on its failure to promote the company and its services. Meanwhile, Boost customers praised the quality of the network which is now dismantled.

https://www.fierce-network.com/broadband/att-now-making-headway-its-copper-retirement-plan

We are going to see something crazy really soon. People will cut lines as they lose revenue and get laidyed off. The is going to mean one thing an one thing alone. PHONE PLANES MUST GO DOWN.....PHONE PLANES MUST GO DOWN. We can't afford india anymore. the poeople in the USA won't pay. they will cut costs. they are going to do the best and most wise thing. cut costs. First is the car...2nd is the phone. lovely world coming

he have limited customers. Also people are dying from old age. this means less phone lines. We don't even use the internet often anymore. we go outside and go to work. So we will have so much fun to come. The beginning of the end.

Verizon experienced a nationwide outage this afternoon leaving tens of thousands customers across the United States unable to send texts or make calls.

Reports of cell service outages began at around 12pm ET on Saturday, according to Down Detector.

There were almost 24,000 outage reports catalogued on the site, which tracks interruptions of service for many different companies.Countless outraged customers said on social media that their phones were stuck on SOS mode.

Verizon has said it is aware of the issue and apologized to those affected.

'Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue, Please visit our Check Network Status page for updates on service in your area,' a spokesman said.

'We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your patience.'

In Bratislava, Slovakia

Verizon will soon have the least amount of post paid subscribers.... Wait nvm BYOD +!!!!

Within the sales organization, many highly talented individuals have been let go — notably Account Executives and Industry Experts. A few years ago, in EMEA, I had the opportunity to review several account plans in sectors like Telco, Aerospace, and Automotive. I still remember exceptional strategic thinking that went into our plans for Vodafone or Airbus. Professionals who knew their clients deeply and instinctively were on command. The depth, creativity, and relevance of our strategies for complex industries were truly outstanding — second to none ! . And now, all those great people are gone. Brilliant, sharp and fast minds all fired ! Dead weights and slackers, all rewarded ! Deadly politics at play.