SpaceX shared plans to create a cellular service during its first earnings call after its IPO, reports Reuters. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company will « build out terrestrial » with the spectrum that it acquired from EchoStar.
She added that SpaceX intends to make Starlink a « true mobile service » that will win « quite a few » customers from Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Shotwell declined to discuss the costs involved in the endeavor and said SpaceX had « great and new ideas » on how to build a mobile service, such as a large number of lower-cost base stations paired with Starlink dishes instead of cell towers.
SpaceX agreed to pay $19.6 billion to acquire 65 MHz of wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar in 2025. The spectrum will allow SpaceX to expand its direct-to-cell Starlink satellite service to include ground-based infrastructure.
Analysts told Reuters that without an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) agreement with a major carrier, it would be extremely difficult for Starlink to compete with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. 65 MHz is tiny compared to the spectrum owned by the big U.S. mobile operators, and they’re unlikely to lease capacity to a competitor.
SpaceX plans to launch its next-generation Starlink Mobile satellites in 2027, and upgraded service that’s « 100 times better » than current direct-to-cell service is targeted for the end of that year. Shares of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon fell 2 to 4 percent following the SpaceX earnings call.
SpaceX already has a partnership with T-Mobile to power T-Mobile’s T-Satellite feature that offers direct-to-cell satellite connectivity to customers.
This article, "SpaceX Plans Starlink Mobile Service to Compete With Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile" first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
