The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed auctioning 25MHz of spectrum for satellite direct-to-device (D2D) services and terrestrial wireless networks.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) covers allocations in the 1675-1695 MHz and 2020-2025 MHz bands. The agency said the spectrum would help meet growing demand for D2D connectivity alongside traditional mobile services.

The FCC’s three commissioners unanimously backed the proposal, part of a broader effort by the administration of US President Donald Trump to clear up to 400MHz of spectrum for commercial use by 2028.

“We expect big interest in this seemingly modest amount of spectrum, indeed, similar D2D bands are selling for tens of billions of dollars on the secondary market today,” FCC chair Brendan Carr said. “Today’s proposal is a strong start.”

The move follows an AWS-3 spectrum auction which raised $3.5 billion. A further 160MHz of upper C-band spectrum is due to be auctioned by July 2027.

D2D framework
In a separate NPRM, the FCC proposed updating D2D licencing rules and sought public comment on opening nearly 482MHz across eight additional frequency bands for satellite-to-phone coverage.

The changes would remove geographic restrictions on spectrum leasing and routine waiver requirements. It also proposed updating technical standards and performance rules for networks combining terrestrial and satellite coverage.

The rules also advance reallocating portions of the 1675-1695 MHz band for non-federal fixed and mobile services. Mobile satellite services would receive secondary allocations in the band to provide supplemental coverage from space.

“With today’s proposal, we take our most comprehensive step yet to modernise the FCC’s rules for direct-to-device,” Carr said.

SpaceX and Amazon Leo are both developing planned D2D services and could benefit from the FCC’s proposals.

Separately, the commission adopted final rules removing a restriction on drone operations in the 800MHz cellular band. Carr said the change would make spectrum available for commercial and defence uses.

The commissioners unanimously approved the D2D rulemaking and the final drone rules.

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A Deutsche Telekom plan to merge with its subsidiary T-Mobile US reportedly hit an obstacle, prompting the German operator to decide against making a formal offer for now.

Bloomberg reported Deutsche Telekom faced opposition from its works council and trade unions, which the news outlet stated account for 50% of supervisory board seats.

The news outlet reported Deutsche Telekom was interested in a merger in April. It became the majority stakeholder in T-Mobile US in 2024 and now has close to a 53% stake.

Bloomberg noted Deutsche Telekom could still bring an offer later.

Last month, Bloomberg reported activist investor Elliott Investment Management was pressing Deutsche Telekom to drop the plan, having “built a sizeable stake” in the company.

Deutsche Telekom steadily accumulated T-Mobile US shares in recent years and its former German unit chief Srini Gopalan is now CEO of the latter.

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Apple unveiled a long-awaited touchscreen MacBook Pro after years of resisting the feature, topping off a fresh wave of product announcements under CEO John Ternus.

The redesigned MacBook Pro in 14- and 16-inch sizes was presented yesterday (28 October), with a tandem OLED display it calls PROLED XDR and touch input which is being brought to macOS for the first time.

Apple stated the touch sensor is built into the panel rather than layered on top, which cuts latency.

It is targeting the feature at designers, musicians, and developers testing iPhone and iPad apps. It noted the touch function works alongside the keyboard and trackpad rather than replacing them. Hardware chief Johny Srouji called it a monumental step for the Mac.

Reuters noted Apple executives had long resisted the idea. Steve Jobs said in 2010 laptop touchscreens were “ergonomically terrible”, and Tim Cook, then CEO, said in 2012 that such devices would be as pleasing to users as converging a toaster and a refrigerator.

“I’m glad to see Apple adopt the best-in-class display technologies with its industry leading silicon and design,” Anshel Sag, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Mobile World Live. “OLED and touch has long been the mark of a premium laptop for Windows and now I’m glad to see Apple embracing both technologies together.”

Both the 14-inch and 16-inch models of the MacBook Pro offer configurations featuring the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with up to 24 hours of battery life.

Orders opened yesterday, with shipping from 6 November. Prices start at $2,899 for the 14-inch M5 Pro and run to $4,799 for the 16-inch M5 Max.

The launch is the latest in a run of hardware announcements under Ternus, who took over as CEO from Tim Cook in September. His first big reveal was the foldable iPhone Duo foldable smartphone, priced at almost $2,000.

On 13 October, Apple expanded its smart home portfolio of devices, led by the $299 HomeView display built to show off Siri AI. Apple also announced a new Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini 2 and accessories made with LG and Schneider Electric.

Ternus is reportedly pushing to speed up product development and is weighing a move away from Apple’s usual launch cycles.

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T-Mobile US CEO Srini Gopalan (pictured) shut the door on a network deal with SpaceX during a Q3 earnings call, telling analysts he sees no reason for an MVNO with the space company.

Gopalan said the operator’s MVNO philosophy has not changed: its criteria includes whether a deal opens a new addressable market, distribution channels or capabilities.

The executive and T-Mobile have long maintained satellite is a complementary product so there is no case for a satellite MVNO.

Gopalan said he does not see an MVNO adding to physical AI and edge efforts for which the operator is building out its standalone (SA) 5G capabilities and moving towards 6G.

“If we’re talking about SpaceX as a customer, or us being a customer of them, that’s a purely commercial agreement,” he said, adding: “I see no room for an MVNO with SpaceX”.

MVNO questions came in the wake of reports SpaceX is seeking access to at least 80,000 US cell sites for Starlink Mobile.

Gopalan said satellite broadband was generally inferior to T-Mobile’s fixed wireless access (FWA) service outside some remote areas, with additional limitations including beam size.

He sees little reason to combine satellite and FWA, noting two-thirds of T-Mobile’s FWA customers are in dense urban areas where it still sees substantial room to grow using fallow network capacity.

“So, we don’t really see a synergistic opportunity with satellite providers”

“I’m very happy to look at a resale arrangement…but an MVNO is a wholly different thing”.

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman also recently ruled out an MVNO with SpaceX and AT&T CEO John Stankey played down the threat SpaceX might pose.

Q3 numbers
T-Mobile’s net income rose 27.3% year-on-year to $3.5 billion on revenue of $23.5 billion, up 7.4%.

Service revenue grew 6.2% to $19.3 billion and post-paid service revenue rose 9.3% to $16.2 billion.

T-Mobile no longer reports wireless customer additions as a separate metric, but stated it added 274,000 net accounts, down 30.8%.

Post-paid account churn was 1.09%, up from 0.97%, attributed to more broadband-only accounts which churn more, and the temporary effect of monthly plan changes.

It had 34,974,000 post-paid accounts compared with 33,979,000 a year earlier. Average revenue per account rose from $149.44 to $155.73.

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