SpaceX claims Starlink Mobile will be better than AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon - Ars Technica

Skip to content

AI

Biz & IT

Cars

Culture

Gaming

Health

Policy

Science

Security

Space

Tech

Forum

Subscribe

Story text

Size

Small<br>Standard<br>Large

Width

Standard<br>Wide

Links

Standard<br>Orange

* Subscribers only

Learn more

Pin to story

Theme

Search

Sign In

Sign in dialog...

Text<br>settings

Story text

Size

Small<br>Standard<br>Large

Width

Standard<br>Wide

Links

Standard<br>Orange

* Subscribers only

Learn more

Minimize to nav

SpaceX says it has a plan for Starlink Mobile to compete against the big three wireless carriers and take a large number of customers away from them.

SpaceX has so far partnered with traditional mobile carriers to supplement their ground-based networks with Starlink satellite capacity, mainly to ensure coverage from space in dead zones not reached by cell towers. But SpaceX is buying spectrum licenses that would let it offer its own terrestrial service to compete directly against the big carriers, and the firm’s top executives said in yesterday’s earnings call they plan to do just that.

“The spectrum that we purchased from EchoStar does have terrestrial components, so we definitely intend to build out the terrestrial component,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in response to questions on the earnings call. “So you will have not only the capacity from the satellites themselves, but you will have a buildout of the terrestrial, basically the hardware and systems necessary to make a true mobile service exactly what you want it to be.”

Shotwell said that AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile make roughly $600 billion a year combined, “and I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better. We will eliminate dead zones, leveraging the, basically the satellites in orbit. It will be better during any sort of natural disaster.” Describing plans for next-generation Starlink mobile satellites, Shotwell said that SpaceX “will start to fly the satellites next year, and we will start providing service end of next year.”

Starlink plans small base stations instead of big towers

As we’ve written before, there are technical challenges for SpaceX to compete against major carriers instead of merely partnering with them. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have more spectrum than SpaceX, cell towers throughout the US, and long track records of providing nationwide mobile service.

“Unless Starlink can secure an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) agreement from one of the carriers, which would provide a baseline ‌of ⁠coverage, it’s extraordinarily challenging to imagine a direct-to-consumer service from Starlink that could be competitive with carrier services in the next five years,” telecom analyst Craig Moffett said, according to Reuters.

T-Mobile has already partnered with SpaceX, while AT&T and Verizon have deals with satellite company AST SpaceMobile. But all three big carriers seem to want non-SpaceX satellite providers to help fill in dead spots in their networks. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon recently announced a joint venture to pool spectrum “and help satellite providers reach more customers through a unified platform.”

Shotwell and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk indicated the firm won’t build large cell towers. Instead, the terrestrial component will consist of “little femtocells around the country,” Shotwell said. She said the plan is to put “a cellular base station on the, basically, the gear that holds a Starlink broadband dish.”

Musk seemed to indicate that future Starlink dishes used by homes and businesses could double as cellular base stations. “Instead of having to deploy these very expensive and difficult-to-locate large cellular base stations, we feel reasonably confident that we can deploy a large number of sort of small stations,” he said. “Essentially, they’re really just Starlink dishes that also provide connectivity in the mobile spectrum bands, and have them be all over the place.”

Musk said, “Starlink antennas are located on the roofs of houses and businesses. They’ve got a clear view for providing connectivity directly to cellphones on the ground, and in fact, providing connectivity that is, we think, probably better and higher bandwidth than what is currently available from cellular providers.”

Capacity limits

SpaceX is buying 65 MHz of nationwide spectrum licenses from EchoStar in a few chunks between 1.695 GHz and 2.2 GHz. EchoStar’s 2 GHz spectrum licenses include rights for both terrestrial and satellite deployments, SpaceX has said.

While the FCC approved the deal in May, the transaction requires regulatory approvals from outside the US and is scheduled to be completed by November 30, 2027. SpaceX has said it will have access to the spectrum before that time because the licenses will be temporarily transferred to a trust held for the benefit of SpaceX.

Nationwide, approximately 1.1 GHz of licensed spectrum was...