AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Launch Satellite D2D Venture
What happened
America's three largest wireless carriers formally launched their joint venture to pool spectrum for satellite-enabled direct-to-device coverage. They named Paul Roth, a former AT&T and Cingular executive, interim CEO. First announced in May, the venture aims to eliminate US cellular dead zones and give customers emergency connectivity when ground networks fail. The release named no satellite-technology partner, spectrum band or financial terms, and a permanent CEO search is underway.
Read-across for SES
This is at least the eighth funded D2D architecture competing for the same market, and the first to unite all three major US carriers behind one shared platform. It directly feeds SpaceConnect's argument that D2D supply is abundant, used against SES and Elveo's 2 GHz MSS bid in Brussels. The carriers' own spectrum, rather than a satellite operator's, is the scarce input here, a structural difference from AST and Elveo's operator-led model.
As the brief filed it
[AGE: 2h] AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon launched their joint satellite-connectivity venture and named an interim CEO. The shared direct-to-device platform adds to the D2D supply glut SES and Elveo's EU spectrum bid must out-argue.