Christine Torralba

This week in the U.S. mobile industry, the focus was on how plans are packaged. T-Mobile made its T-Mix lineup official, replacing built-in perks with a set number of “Picks,” while Mint Mobile cut the price of extra unlimited lines on its family plans to $20 a month.

The biggest story in U.S. mobile this week was SpaceX moving closer to becoming a carrier in its own right.

The biggest jolt this week in U.S. mobile came from outside the big three. SpaceX’s agreement to buy Grain Management’s 800 MHz spectrum gave Starlink Mobile the low-band airwaves it had been missing, sent carrier stocks sharply lower, and drew a skeptical response from Deutsche Telekom’s CEO.

This week’s U.S. mobile news kept coming back to trust: who is following the rules, who is protecting customer data, and which company’s messages customers can believe. Trump Mobile drew scrutiny on two fronts, a senator’s letter alleging missing FCC robocall filings and a leak of 3,615 customer records.

If coverage in remote areas is one of the things you weigh when choosing a phone plan, there's news worth knowing about, though it's not something to act on just yet. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have officially launched their shared satellite venture, and it now has someone in charge.

This week, carriers leaned hard into looking smarter and tougher.

This week the U.S. mobile industry showed carriers stretching well past the phone-and-plan business.

T-Mobile was the throughline this week, and it wasn't a flattering one.

This week's mobile story kept circling back to a question the industry can't seem to settle: what actually earns a customer's loyalty, a store or an app?