reports
- Blair Levin
T Threats Limited in Senate FirstNet Hearing; House Hearing This Week
In a legislative battle pitting the interests of T v. VZ and TMUS, the Senate held a hearing last week on the reauthorization of the FirstNet Authority (FNA), with the House holding another one this coming Wednesday. In this note, we analyze the first hearing as well as a draft House bill with an eye toward whether the upcoming Congressional action is likely to change the current economics of public safety communications for T, VZ, and TMUS.
- David Barden
Not unexpectedly, SATS defaults on AMT leases – We quantify the readth...
AMT (Buy, PT $203), after the close today, shared that SATS has defaulted on its tower lease agreement payments. This was unsurprising following a similar revelation from CCI (Neutral, PT $93) on 1/12/26 (see our note). AMT says this action will have no impact on 2025 results. AMT did not mention the value of the remaining payments, but we assume it is similar to the ~$3.5bn (undiscounted) CCI cited.
- David Barden
Wireless: Key controversies heading into US wireless 4Q25 results and ...
We can’t remember a time when investors were as nervous about wireless earnings as they are going into 4Q25 results. We think this concern is by and large overblown and we will all come out feeling consoled on the other side of this earnings cycle. In this short note, we discuss the key controversies impacting the wireless sector currently and our perspective.
- Blair Levin
What’s at Stake for T (and VZ and TMUS) in the Upcoming FirstNet Autho...
Tomorrow, weather permitting, the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on the FirstNet Authority (FNA). Generally, we don’t write about Congressional hearings as they focus on sound bites rather than policy relevant to investors. Here, however, the hearing could prove market relevant. FNA has a contract with T, but Congress must act if the FNA is to be reauthorized past 2027. And the battle over the terms of that reauthorization pits T v. VZ and TMUS. In this note we provide backg...
- David Barden
The future of US wireless, right now - Extrapolating 3Q25 wireless tre...
We are taking 3Q25 results and the most recent cNPS data and laying out our latest thinking and forecasts ahead of 4Q results. We expect 4Q results and attendant 2026 guidance to contain material information value for investors and we wanted to share our latest forecasts, data, and trends as a starting point as we navigate this impactful season.
- Blair Levin
DISH Antitrust Challenge to DIS; Will Content or Distribution Gain Fle...
Earlier this month DISH filed an antitrust complaint against DIS in the latest chapter of a long running dispute over DIS’s efforts to create new sports bundles and DISH’s efforts to create new options for how its customers access programming over its platform. In this note we explore the implications of the battle, how it might affect the flexibility of content and distribution in seeking to adjust to thrive in the media world to come, and what it could tell us about the direction of media and...
- David Barden
SATS defaults on CCI leases - Quantifying the readthrough
CCI (Neutral, PT $93) after the close today announced that SATS has defaulted on its tower lease agreement payments. As a result, the company has terminated the agreement and will seek to recover ~$3.5Bn+ of the remaining undiscounted payments owed. CCI says this decision will have no impact on 2025 results. As a function of this announcement, we are taking SATS payments fully out of our model for 2026E. Previously, we had zeroed out SATS payments for only 2H26 and beyond. In this note, we shar...
- Blair Levin
Part Three of Year in Preview: Our Analysis about Policyband’s Predict...
This week we published three notes that preview what we think will be critical to investors in telecom/media/tech policy environment. In the first, we evaluated what questions do we not know the answer to today but will in a year that will have a material impact on stocks and depend in part on policy. In the second, we looked at the biggest policy related investment stories of 2025 and how the lingering elements of those stories will play out. In this third one we evaluate nine predictions mad...
- Blair Levin
Part Two of Year in Preview: What about SATS, BEAD, Spectrum, and Othe...
This week we are publishing three notes that analyze what we think will be critical to investors in telecom/media/tech policy environment in the year ahead. In the first one, published yesterday we evaluated questions that we do not know the answer to today--but will in a year--that will have a material impact on stocks and depend in part on policy. In this second one, we look at the biggest policy related investment stories of 2025 and how the lingering elements of those stories will play out i...
- David Barden
Towers 4Q25 Estimates & Ratings Refresh
The last 3 months have seen substantial tower price dislocation catalyzed by news that SATS intends to invoke contractual clauses and stop paying the tower industry for current leases. We highlight some key industry developments impacting sentiment and preview 4Q results based on our catch-up conversations with the companies in recent weeks.
- David Barden
SATS: SpaceX, the final frontier
We are revising our SATS valuation analysis to reflect 1) reports that SpaceX is pursuing a new secondary equity round seeking a valuation between $750-800bn vs. SATS’ $400bn buy-in as compensation for recent spectrum sales, and 2) rising concerns that upper C-Band spectrum deployments may get bogged down in airplane altimeter interference issues, placing a growing premium on today’s commercially available spectrum, specifically the AWS-3. We are raising our SATS price objective to $125 from $10...
- David Barden
The future of broadband - Cable is losing share
Cable companies have been losing share among terrestrial providers for the past 16 quarters. We believe they are gaining share in ~45% of their footprint where they compete against DSL but losing share in the ~55% of the market where they compete against fiber.
- David Barden
- Vikash Harlalka
The future of broadband 3Q25: Our updated broadband industry forecast ...
In this report, our latest broadband outlook tome, in addition to forecasting the future of broadband by technology for the next 5 years, we undertake a sensitivity analysis for Cable's end-state market share possibilities. We also refresh our work on the relative competitive positioning of carriers based on end-user cNPS scores via our Recon Analytics partnership.
- David Barden
SATS 3Q25 Quick Take: Key topics for the call will be taxes, towers, a...
Echostar’s subscriber results were better than expected but financial results were weaker. They announced the sale of their unpaired AWS-3 spectrum to SpaceX for $2.6BN in stock. We did not attach any material value to this spectrum, so the sale represents windfall upside for the stock. Investors are asking if we believe the impairment charge taken this quarter, partially allocated to spectrum, following the decision to shutter the facilities-based wireless business represents a reduction in the...
- David Barden
- David Barden
Autumn for Broadband 3Q25 – FWA ascendant, Cable struggling
We share here, in our latest Autumn for Broadband report, a quick update on broadband industry trends based on reported company results so far. Industry net adds have improved substantially from a year ago but remain below last year’s when adjusted for ACP impact. Net adds for the quarter were higher than the pre-pandemic norm but trailing twelve-month net adds remain below pre-pandemic levels. We take a deep-dive into FWA’s continued strong momentum by carrier.
- David Barden
TMUS: A great house, but the neighborhood? We need convincing...
TMUS had a strong quarter, and the stock was down. We believe the reason is the general concern that Verizon will say something on 10/29 that makes investors run for the hills. Verizon, in our view, must prioritize 2 objectives, 1) explain how change is coming, and that this is a good thing, but at the same time 2) assure a jittery market that VZ will not burn down the neighborhood in which they own the largest house. We think they will be able to do both, and we are optimistic.
- David Barden
T-Mobile 3Q25 Quick Take: Strong results; guidance raised
Postpaid phone net adds beat by a big margin. FWA net adds were higher as well. Revenue and EBITDA also beat slightly. The company has raised guidance across the board and now expects higher subscriber adds, higher EBITDA as well as higher FCF. The stock should trade up on the beat and guidance increase. Cable may be soft again due to the FWA beat.
- Vikash Harlalka
BEAD: Update for the Lone Star State
We have updated our BEAD analysis to include the proposal from Texas which was allocated the largest amount of BEAD funding. We now include BEAD proposals from 52 states & territories in our below analysis. We have also updated the analysis for states that have revised their proposals.
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