AT&T Fixed Wireless Back in New York
The carrier had pulled the service over the state’s Affordable Broadband Act
WASHINGTON, July 22, 2026 – AT&T has resumed offering its fixed wireless service in New York State, a spokesperson confirmed in an email.
In January 2025, the wireless carrier stopped offering fixed wireless in the state in protest of a state law that caps broadband rates for low-income households. New York sits outside AT&T’s wireline footprint, so the company was effectively pulling out of the home broadband market in the state.
Broadband industry groups pointed to AT&T’s exit in their effort to convince the Supreme Court to strike down the law, saying that same month that the risk of the policy driving ISPs out of the state “has now come to pass.”
The high court refused to hear the challenge last year and let the law stay in effect.
AT&T began offering its service again in the state earlier this year, the spokesperson said. The company didn’t have New York-specific subscriber numbers.
The Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) caps broadband prices at $20 per month for households participating in programs like SNAP and Medicaid. ISPs with less than 20,000 subscribers were tentatively exempted, but large ISPs bound by the law cover 95 percent of the state’s homes and businesses.
It’s the only state law of its kind on the books. California legislators were considering a similar bill, but dropped the effort last year.
They did so because ISPs participating in the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program have to be exempt from state-level rate regulation laws under Trump administration rules.
The agency told the California lawmakers any ISP that won grant funding in the state would have to be exempt throughout their in-state footprint to avoid jeopardizing California’s $1.8 billion allocation.
The agency also wants BEAD participants to be exempt from the ABA, but that doesn’t include AT&T since the carrier didn’t win funding in the state.
Days after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, put out a release saying BEAD was moving forward in the state "alongside" the ABA, NTIA circulated a memo urging ISPs to notify the agency if states were circumventing its policies.
As of May, New York was still negotiating contracts with BEAD ISPs, and those contracts are where an exemption would be spelled out.
Other providers with large footprints in the state did win BEAD funding, like Verizon and Charter. New York’s utility regulator said in 2024 that those ISPs already offered low-income plans compliant or similar to the ABA plans.
