Verizon Acquiring Fixed Wireless Operator Starry

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2025 – Verizon is acquiring fixed wireless provider Starry, the Big Three wireless carrier announced Wednesday.

The company didn’t say how much it was paying in its release, and declined to disclose the terms of the deal when asked by Broadband Breakfast. The deal is expected to close by the first quarter of 2026, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission.

Starry has about 100,000 customers in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and Boston. The ISP specializes in serving apartment buildings and other multi-dwelling units (MDUs).

“Starry has demonstrated a unique and efficient approach to delivering high-speed internet in complex MDU environments,” Joe Russo, Verizon’s EVP of global networks and technology, said in a statement. “By integrating their technology and expertise, we will accelerate our fixed wireless access capabilities, giving millions of new customers a powerful and affordable broadband option. This architecture is less expensive to build, quicker to deploy, and uniquely addresses the complexities of urban settings where we can leverage our existing fiber and mmWave assets.”

Verizon was already looking to use that millimeter wave spectrum to roll out an MDU solution for its existing fixed wireless service. That’s been tested in at least 15 markets and is supposed to expand more in the second half of this year, former CEO Hans Vestberg has said.

Starry’s “proprietary beam-forming technology is arguably their most valuable asset,” MoffettNathanson founder Craig Moffett said in an email to investors. “It is reasonable to assume that this acquisition will be principally targeted at MDUs, perhaps eventually supplanting Verizon’s own struggling MDU FWA solution.”

Millimeter wave spectrum has high capacity but can’t travel long distances or punch through obstacles.

The carrier already has more than 5 million fixed wireless broadband subscribers, far ahead of AT&T’s 1 million and behind T-Mobile’s 7.3 million, but the pace of new additions has slowed over the last year.

Verizon was reportedly interested in scooping up EchoStar’s remaining AWS-3 licenses, which would give it additional headroom to support more fixed wireless subscribers.

The Starry purchase comes two days after Verizon abruptly replaced Vestberg with former PayPal CEO and top Verizon board member Dan Schulman. 

“The plan is big cost cuts, a reversal on the pricing strategy of the past several years which has driven up churn, and putting buybacks and strategic acquisitions on the credit card by raising leverage targets,” New Street Research analyst David Barden wrote in a Tuesday research note on the CEO transition. “It’s our read."