{"id":465684,"date":"2026-06-07T17:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/465684\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T17:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T17:29:11","slug":"oppenheimer-says-spacex-could-disrupt-a-1-6-trillion-industry-att-and-verizon-investors-should-be-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/465684\/","title":{"rendered":"Oppenheimer Says SpaceX Could Disrupt a $1.6 Trillion Industry. AT&#038;T and Verizon Investors Should Be Worried."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent note to investors, Oppenheimer analysts suggest that SpaceX has the assets to disrupt the $1.6 trillion U.S. communications industry by way of the company&#8217;s Starlink satellite broadband service.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s unpack how Starlink has the potential to pressure legacy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/communication\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">telecommunications<\/a> players such as Verizon Communications\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/quote\/nyse\/vz\/\" class=\"font-bold hover:underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VZ<\/a> +1.15%) and AT&amp;T (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/quote\/nyse\/t\/\" class=\"font-bold hover:underline\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">T<\/a> +0.04%), ultimately forcing investors to rethink some assumptions about the kind of infrastructure that will dominate the next era of data transmission.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Verizon Communications Stock Quote\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"w-full flex-none object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780853351_635_.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s Change<\/p>\n<p>(1.15%) $0.52<\/p>\n<p>Current Price<\/p>\n<p>$45.38<\/p>\n<p>Key Data Points<\/p>\n<p>Market Cap<\/p>\n<p>$189B<\/p>\n<p>Day&#8217;s Range<\/p>\n<p>$45.01 &#8211; $46.10<\/p>\n<p>52wk Range<\/p>\n<p>$38.39 &#8211; $51.68<\/p>\n<p>Volume<\/p>\n<p>774.3K<\/p>\n<p>Avg Vol<\/p>\n<p>24.5M<\/p>\n<p>Gross Margin<\/p>\n<p>45.50%<\/p>\n<p>Dividend Yield<\/p>\n<p>6.09%<\/p>\n<p>How could Starlink revolutionize the communications industry?<\/p>\n<p>According to SpaceX&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/s\/sec-form-s-1\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">S-1 filing<\/a>, Starlink boasted 10.3 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter. Oppenheimer&#8217;s 2030 forecast for Starlink&#8217;s U.S. broadband customer base is currently 15 million, implying rapid acceleration over the next several years.<\/p>\n<p>Starlink&#8217;s competitive edge comes from delivering low-latency, high-speed internet from space. This approach is different from traditional cable or fiber networks that rely on ground infrastructure and may struggle in lower-density areas.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Oppenheimer thinks Starlink will evolve beyond a consumer broadband provider. Should Starlink become more heavily used in critical environments such as emergency response or military operations, as well as more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2026\/05\/30\/can-starlink-make-american-airlines-a-winner\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">enterprise markets<\/a>, churn rates could fall and provide the company an opportunity to command higher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/p\/pricing-power\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pricing power<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Oppenheimer goes on to suggest that SpaceX and its broader umbrella could eventually move into the handset market &#8212; an opportunity analysts believe is worth half a trillion dollars.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"An engineer designing a satellite at their desk.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"880\" height=\"495\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"h-auto max-w-full rounded object-contain\" style=\"color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780853351_546_.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Image source: Getty Images.<\/p>\n<p>Why AT&amp;T and Verizon could become risky investments<\/p>\n<p>Deploying and maintaining buried fiber, coaxial cables, poles, and wiring costs Verizon and AT&amp;T billions of dollars annually and often scales poorly. Indeed, Starlink&#8217;s satellite constellation also comes with massive upfront capital outlays. However, the company sidesteps some of the location-specific expenses of terrestrial last-mile infrastructure as its orbital assets can theoretically be refreshed via Starship&#8217;s reusable rockets &#8212; helping lower incremental per-user costs once a constellation is in place.<\/p>\n<p>If Starlink&#8217;s growth accelerates throughout the remainder of the decade, AT&amp;T and Verizon could be hit particularly hard as their heavy exposure to broadband, video, and services becomes increasingly vulnerable to satellite substitution. As a result, these companies could endure greater subscriber erosion, compressed profit margins, and a shrinking total addressable market for legacy telecoms infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Investors who have relied on passive income in the form of steady <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/types-of-stocks\/dividend-stocks\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dividends<\/a> and predictable cash flow from Verizon and AT&amp;T may come to find that the telecom industry&#8217;s historical growth engines are migrating to orbit.<\/p>\n<p>Are traditional telecoms stocks still worth buying?<\/p>\n<p>The communications industry is far from disappearing. Rather, it is being transformed by space. Oppenheimer simply raised its space-economy revenue projection for 2035 to $800 billion &#8212; up from $500 billion &#8212; signaling robust <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/terms\/s\/secular-trend\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">secular tailwinds<\/a> in orbital infrastructure that far outweigh the incremental gains typically seen in traditional telecom businesses.<\/p>\n<p>In all likelihood, the upcoming SpaceX IPO will serve as a marketwide catalyst for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/industrials\/space-stocks\/satellite-stocks\/\" class=\"text-cyan-900 hover:text-cyan-800\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">satellite and space infrastructure stocks<\/a>. Smart investors might view this as a moment to pivot their portfolio allocations by gradually reducing overexposure to legacy wireline and wireless incumbents and seeking some exposure to the companies leading the next decade&#8217;s orbital wave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a recent note to investors, Oppenheimer analysts suggest that SpaceX has the assets to disrupt the $1.6&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-465684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}