{"id":926031,"date":"2026-10-09T02:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T02:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926031\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T02:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T02:54:09","slug":"spacexs-starlink-now-closer-to-becoming-a-major-mobile-carrier-rival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926031\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX’s Starlink Now Closer to Becoming a Major Mobile Carrier Rival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Days after Elon Musk’s SpaceX<\/a> scored a regulatory win that could give Starlink<\/a> more power to compete with wireless giants Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, the company announced that it will acquire a slice of low-frequency cellular spectrum that could help it operate better indoors.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Federal Communications Commission granted SpaceX’s request to deploy and operate 15,000 Starlink satellites to provide direct-to-device connectivity. The FCC also waived a rule that requires a leasing arrangement with one or more terrestrial wireless carriers, allowing SpaceX to use its own spectrum for the service.<\/p>\n

And SpaceX announced on Thursday that it will acquire a slice of low-frequency cellular spectrum that could help Starlink’s signal operate better indoors, not just under open skies.<\/p>\n

Musk called Thursday’s announcement a “very big deal” in a post on X.<\/p>\n

The move brings Starlink closer to becoming more than just a mobile service for remote areas or emergency situations \u2014 and toward becoming a serious mobile carrier rival.<\/p>\n

“This prime low-band spectrum addresses one of the key remaining technical gaps that will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US,” SpaceX said.<\/p>\n

Stocks for T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon were all hit after trading hours following the SpaceX announcement. T-Mobile’s stock fell more than 11%, while Verizon and AT&T’s stock fell by about 6.6%.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has faced skepticism in the past from the carriers it hopes to take on.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen no zero discernible impact on our broadband growth from any LEO, low earth orbit satellite provider, including Starlink,” Verizon<\/a> CEO Dan Schulman said at a Goldman Sachs conference last month.<\/p>\n

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Schulman added that he does not view satellite as a “viable competitor in the medium and even longer term.”<\/p>\n

SpaceX would also need other critical ingredients to build a reliable urban cellular network, including ground infrastructure like cell sites and fiber connections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Days after Elon Musk’s SpaceX scored a regulatory win that could give Starlink more power to compete with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6980,15587,45,49,48,250,318260,318259,6747,197422,6888,248,54846,2511,34319,9500,34120,318261],"class_list":["post-926031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-announcement","tag-att","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-elon-musk","tag-low-frequency-cellular-spectrum","tag-major-mobile-carrier-rival","tag-service","tag-slice","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-starlink-satellite","tag-stock","tag-t-mobile","tag-thursday","tag-verizon","tag-well-indoor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}