SpaceX said it plans to become a major mobile carrier, a move aimed squarely at T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. The company has acquired low-band spectrum licenses to support the effort, according to the announcement. The push would put the satellite company in direct competition with the three established US wireless carriers.
The licenses cover up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band. SpaceX says that spectrum will let Starlink Mobile's signal pass through walls and buildings, addressing a longstanding obstacle for satellite-based phone service. The FCC has approved plans to deploy 15,000 of the company's V2 Starlink Mobile satellites.
According to SpaceX, those satellites will deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of the current generation. SpaceX previously acquired 2GHz spectrum from EchoStar as part of its efforts to strengthen its direct-to-device service. That earlier acquisition adds to the spectrum holdings the company now says it will use for the carrier business.
In describing the plan, SpaceX said the combination of the new low-band spectrum and its Gen2 constellation would let Starlink Mobile become the first network operator to deploy both satellite and terrestrial spectrum. The company characterized the result as a single network serving Americans with reliable service indoors, outdoors, in cellular dead zones, and everywhere in between.
The announcement places SpaceX in the wireless carrier market alongside the largest US providers of cellular service. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon are the carriers the company identified as its intended competitors in that market.
The FCC's approval of the V2 satellite deployment is a key regulatory step for the expansion. SpaceX has not indicated a timeline for launching commercial carrier service. Additional details about pricing and availability were not included in the announcement.
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