Sen. Thune Visits NATE Member Ehresmann Engineering in South Dakota

Eric Taylor, South Dakota WIN State Liaison and a representative of NATE member company Ehresmann Engineering, hosted U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a site visit. Visits like these showcase the businesses, skilled professionals, and innovative companies that make up the communications infrastructure industry, and NATE thanked Eric and Ehresmann Engineering for helping highlight the important work being done by NATE members. See photos from the visit on NATE’s social channels.

Can America Build AI and Rural Broadband at the Same Time?

In a new Broadband Breakfast op-ed, Nathan Leamer of Fixed Gear Strategies, who works with NATE on federal advocacy, warns that the AI data-center build-out and the $42.45 billion BEAD rural broadband program are set to draw on the same fiber, utility poles, permit offices, and skilled crews in the same few years. He points to fiber prices up as much as 50 percent in 2026 and cloud capital spending above $700 billion, alongside estimates that broadband builds need tens of thousands more workers while the AI build-out will need 140,000 more skilled tradespeople by 2030. Leamer urges policymakers to keep BEAD projects economically viable, fund workforce training, and give fiber routes and towers the same permitting fast track being written for energy projects, warning that otherwise “AI and rural broadband could end up bidding against each other for the same spools and the same people.”

Tower Companies Now Own Dish’s Abandoned 5G Radios

On American Tower’s Q3 earnings call, the company confirmed that tower owners now hold the roughly 24,000 5G radios and antennas Dish Wireless left behind as it winds down its network. Analysts floated SpaceX as a potential buyer of the gear and noted Dish’s exit will trim Crown Castle’s 2026 site-rental billings by about $220 million.

SpaceX Reportedly Eyes 80,000 Cell Sites as $8B Spectrum Buy Lifts Tower Stocks

Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is in talks for access to roughly 80,000 U.S. cell sites to support Starlink’s move into mobile, though no tower lease has been signed. The report followed SpaceX’s roughly $8 billion deal for Grain Management’s nationwide 800 MHz spectrum, which sent Crown Castle up more than 13 percent, American Tower more than 8 percent, and SBA more than 6 percent. 

Bipartisan Senate Permitting Bill Teed Up for a Post-Election Vote

A bipartisan group led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito introduced the American Affordability and Jobs Act, a permitting-reform package built mainly around energy and transmission projects, with a floor vote expected after the Nov. 3 elections. As Leamer notes in his op-ed above, the bill’s fast-track treatment largely leaves out the fiber routes and towers that carry data-center and rural-broadband traffic, a gap the industry will watch as the measure moves.  

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