Elon Musk’s SpaceX is moving to get into the cell phone business — scooping up billions of dollars’ worth of cellular spectrum licenses and putting traditional telecom giants on the defensive.
Musk’s company reached an $8 billion deal for the licenses this week, laying the groundwork for a terrestrial network that would fill in gaps in coverage by SpaceX’s satellite service Starlink.
Putting the spectrum to use requires Federal Communications Commission approval — a step the body’s chair seemed enthusiastic about.
“President Trump is unleashing a new Golden Age of connectivity in America,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr wrote on X on Thursday night, commenting on an article about Musk’s latest venture.
Asked about the deal Friday on CNBC, he said the commission is going to “sit back and watch” Musk’s next steps.
Telecom giants were less enthusiastic — shares in AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon were all down Friday morning.
SpaceX said once it gets FCC approval, the company will deploy a “flexible architecture combining our satellite-to-mobile constellation in space.”
The idea is to use both traditional, on-the-ground cell towers and SpaceX’s vast array of satellites for a new cell super service.
Earlier this week, the FCC approved SpaceX’s effort to send up to 15,000 satellites for cellular service, the Wall Street Journal noted.
Details on pricing and availability for Starlink Mobile remain a long way off. The company did not answer a request for comment.
While the announcement spooked some investors, Verizon voiced confidence in the face of a potential major new competitor.
“A company can have billions of dollars of spectrum, but if they do not have the network to use it, it’s just empty airwaves,” a Verizon spokesperson told the Post.
The spectrum announcement helped bump SpaceX shares to a level investors haven’t seen since July, trading around $163, or up 1.6%, on Friday.
AT&T did not respond to a request for comment. T-Mobile, a company that already has an internet relationship with Starlink, denied to comment.
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