The content team at Channel Partners tracks stories of interest to the technology advisor and wider channel communities. Anyone selling communication and connectivity solutions will want to stay abreast of these developing stories or catch up on ones they have missed. All links are valid as of March 4.

FCC Gives Charter-Cox Acquisition Green Light

Charter Communications, operator of the Spectrum cable brand, has obtained FCC permission to buy Cox and surpass Comcast as the country’s largest home Internet service provider. Opponents of Charter’s $34.5 billion acquisition told the FCC that eliminating Cox as an independent entity will make it easier for Charter and Comcast to raise prices. But the FCC dismissed those concerns on the grounds that Charter and Cox don’t compete directly against each other in the vast majority of their territories. The companies still need Justice Department approval and sign-offs from states including California and New York. Read the Ars Technica story.

Mobile World Congress 2026: Complete Coverage from Fierce Network

Fierce Network reports live from Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona, the telecom industry’s premier global event hosted by GSMA, running through March 5. The Fierce Network team is covering AI, 5G, emerging 6G innovation, Open RAN, AI-RAN, AI-driven network automation, private networks, cloud-native infrastructure, and the strategies shaping the future of global communications. Read the Fierce Network MWC coverage.

AT&T CEO Stankey’s Blueprint for the Next Frontier

“No one thing in and of itself is something to rest on,” AT&T CEO John Stankey told the audience during the opening keynote at Mobile World Congress 2026, as he set out a bullish vision for the company’s push across 5G, satellite, and hybrid networks. During a fireside chat, Stankey stressed the need for firms in the telecom space to not rest on one thing for too long, opining: “When it's time to make the shift or the pivot, make it.” Read the SDxCentral story.

Avaya, C1 Keep Legal Dispute Under Wraps

As Avaya and C1 wade through arbitration, the companies continue to keep the lid shut on why Avaya sued its multi-time partner of the year. A month and a half after the cloud communications giant took C1 to court for allegedly interfering with customer relationships, the companies are still deciding on the terms of their arbitration. U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, granted Avaya’s petition to enter arbitration and its temporary restraining order against C1. Avaya and C1 have stayed quiet about the situation, fueling speculation from partners and analysts. See the Channel Dive story.

What to Make of Anthropic’s Fight with the U.S. Pentagon

The back and forth between Anthropic and the U.S. government highlights broader tensions over AI safety, sovereignty and vendor control in defense applications. Just before a deadline set by the Pentagon asking for Anthropic to relax some of its safety guardrails, President Donald Trump announced the government would stop working with the AI model provider. Government agencies that use Anthropic products will have a six-month phase out period, according to the post. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei vowed to challenge the action in court. Read the story on AI Business.

OpenAI CEO Updates ‘Opportunistic and Sloppy’ Pentagon AI Deal

In the wake of the U.S. government refusing to do business with Anthropic, rival OpenAI signed a deal with the Pentagon to provide AI for classified U.S. military systems. A few days later, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced updates to the deal, which includes prohibiting the AI system from being intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals. Altman claimed in the original deal, OpenAI looked “opportunistic and sloppy.” Read the Capacity Global story.

Broadcom Unveils VMware Telco Cloud Platform 9 with AI Monetization and Sovereign Cloud Focus

Broadcom introduced VMware Telco Cloud Platform 9 at Mobile World Congress 2026, positioning the release as a unified, AI-native private cloud platform for telco data centers. Built on VMware Cloud Foundation 9 with additional telco-specific capabilities, the platform targets hardware efficiency, sovereign-ready infrastructure, and support for both 4G/5G Core and AI workloads on a common horizontal stack. Read the Converge Digest story.

Ergen 'Disappointed' by Lawsuits Lobbed at Dish

EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen said he's frustrated by an array of lawsuits targeting Dish by tower owners and connectivity providers, claiming Dish has settled 'hundreds of contracts' through negotiation without litigation. Read the Light Reading story.

Zoom Thrives in a World Awash with Churn

Microsoft licensing changes, decline of legacy platforms and product bundling are helping Zoom and its partners supplant contact center software providers. Seven of Zoom’s 10 largest deals last quarter deals displaced a contact-center-as-a-service vendor, Zoom CEO and Chairman Eric Yuan told investors. In several of these deals, the Zoom Phone replaced Microsoft Teams or Cisco Calling. Read the Channel Dive story.