AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all seen elevated customer losses in recent months amid rising competition.
In an effort to gain ground, the three carriers are joining forces to deliver a significant network upgrade for customers, a move that challenges a fast-growing competitor.
In the first quarter of 2026, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile saw a slight rise in their postpaid phone churn, which is the percentage of customers who canceled their service.
AT&T’s increased by 6 basis points year over year, T-Mobile’s rose by 3 basis points, and Verizon’s wireless retail postpaid phone churn (which represents smartphone customers) spiked by 2 basis points.
(A basis point is equal to 1/100th of 1% or 0.01%).
The uptick in customer losses comes as all three carriers face a more price-conscious consumer.
In December, a survey from WhistleOut revealed that 42% of customers across Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile experienced higher phone bills over the past year, and 58% are considering changing wireless providers.
The findings suggest that all three carriers collectively face the risk of losing roughly 30 million customers due to high wireless plan pricing.
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon face fast-growing competition
In search of lower prices, many consumers have been exploring wireless service from nontraditional providers such as cable companies and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs).
The rise of satellite cellular service is also attracting consumer interest, disrupting the telecom industry.
SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile, which was previously known as Direct to Cell when it first launched in 2024, is rapidly growing in the satellite cellular service market.
While Starlink is marketed as a mobile service that partners with and enhances terrestrial telecom providers, analysts believe it has the potential to become an independent MVNO or a standalone satellite giant, posing a major threat to AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
At Mobile World Congress 2026 in March, Mike Nicolls, senior vice president for Starlink at SpaceX, said that Starlink Mobile has recently surpassed 10 million subscribers, according to a report from SDX Central.
SpaceX predicts that it will garner 52,000 new Starlink Mobile users per day throughout 2026, targeting 25 million active users by the end of the year.
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Starlink plans major network enhancement
Those numbers may soon balloon as Starlink Mobile plans to rapidly enhance its service. By mid-2027, it will launch its next-generation Starlink Mobile V2 satellites using SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft.
These satellites will provide 5G speeds from space, with 100 times the data density of the current V1 satellite generation, enabling them to handle 20 times more traffic.
This will allow Starlink Mobile users to browse the internet, use high-speed apps, stream, and make phone calls without interruption or deterioration in service.
“Our goal is to deploy a constellation capable of providing global and contiguous coverage within six months, and that’s roughly 1,200 satellites,” said Nicolls during the conference.
“From there, we’ll continue scaling the constellation to add capacity, much like we scale on the Starlink broadband system,” he continued. “This will allow us to offer data and voice services everywhere. We’ll also scale the constellation to truly have global coverage, including the polar regions.”
In addition to Starlink’s rapid growth, Amazon plans to make strides in satellite mobile technology by offering direct-to-device (D2D) services with the upcoming launch of Amazon Leo.
The new Amazon Leo D2D system will “help mobile network operators extend voice, text, and data services to customers beyond the reach of terrestrial cellular networks,” according to Amazon’s website.
Photo by Twenty47studio on Getty Images
The big three U.S. carriers make a rare move amid rising competition
Amid these growing threats, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have teamed up to launch a new joint venture that will help them gain more ground in the rising satellite cellular service market, according to a recent press release.
Through the joint venture, the carriers plan to use “satellite-based technologies to address coverage gaps, especially in unserved and underserved communities.”
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon claim that the joint venture will help them “nearly eliminate dead zones in the U.S. currently without mobile service.” It will also provide customers with connectivity during “extreme natural disasters or other unusual disruptions,” when ground-based networks are unavailable.
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The joint venture will also enable customers to have simpler, more consistent access to satellite services across providers. They will also have faster access to feature updates.
Overall, the carriers believe that this unified approach will be beneficial for consumers as it will “enhance competition,” allowing their satellite services options to grow.
“We are not just closing gaps on a map, we are building resilient digital infrastructure that meets the changing needs of our customers, no matter where life takes them,” said Verizon CEO Dan Schulman in the press release.
“This partnership gives customers more options, continues to strengthen America’s infrastructure, and increases competition for satellite providers,” he continued.
Wireless carriers add satellite services
All three carriers currently offer their own satellite cellular services. In March last year, Verizon introduced its free satellite messaging service, but it is only compatible with select Android phones.
In July, Starlink partnered with T-Mobile to launch a joint direct-to-cell service, T-Satellite. However, T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan recently flagged that the service is seeing lower-than-expected consumer demand.
“Just to give you an example, we look at our data in May, and satellite usage is 0.0002% of our total network usage,” said Gopalan during a JP Morgan conference on May 18, according to a PCMag report. “That’s three zeros.”
“We’re seeing it largely focused on the national parks,” he added.
AT&T is also working with AST SpaceMobile on a satellite cellular service that provides connectivity for voice, data, and text in remote, off-grid locations. AT&T plans to launch this service commercially after the beta program rolls out this year.
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon’s latest push in the satellite cellular service market comes during a time when these services are sparking increased interest worldwide, and consumers are open to paying extra to access them, a recent survey from Viasat found.
How consumers view direct-to-cell satellite services:
- More than one-third of consumers report losing access to basic mobile service at least twice per month because of weak coverage.
- Approximately 91% of consumers said consistent coverage matters at home, 89% said it matters when traveling domestically, and 70% said it matters when traveling overseas.
- Roughly 80% expressed interest in having satellite-enabled service on their smartphone.
- About 67% said they are interested in using these services for messaging and emergency/SOS capabilities, while 65% want to use them for web browsing, data and video calls, 63% said for voice calls.
- More than 60% said they would consider paying extra for satellite-enabled mobile services.
- Nearly half would switch to a wireless provider that offers one of these services.
Source: Viasat
“Six in ten say they’re willing to pay extra for D2D (direct-to-device) services, and nearly half would switch provider to get them, a decisive signal of demand and a clear revenue runway for operators,” said Tim Hatt, head of research and consulting at GSMA Intelligence in a press release.
“With satellite services aligned to 3GPP standards and moving from trials to commercial reality, the race is on to deliver D2D at scale, first messaging and voice, then data – so operators can differentiate on reach, resilience and customer trust.”
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