SpaceX Advances Toward Mobile Phone Service With Starlink
After conquering the satellite internet market, Starlink is now setting its sights on mobile. SpaceX's division has made its ambitions in this area clear for several years, and has just taken a major step toward making those ambitions a reality. According to the Wall Street Journal, it will spend $8 billion to acquire a portfolio of low-frequency licenses from Grain Management, a private equity fund. If the deal is approved by the FCC and the Department of Justice, Starlink is expected to secure up to 14 MHz in the 800 MHz band, which Grain itself bought from T-Mobile earlier this year.
Following last year's agreement to buy 65 MHz of mid-band spectrum from EchoStar, a satellite specialist, this new acquisition gives SpaceX another foothold in the telecom sector—even if its push remains modest for now. All U.S. mobile operators together hold 1,020 MHz of mid-band spectrum, compared to SpaceX's 65 MHz, according to market research firm New Street Research.
Major Authorization Secured from the FCC
The company has also secured a key green light from the FCC, the U.S. telecom regulator, which has authorized its Starlink Mobile division to operate without being required to partner with a terrestrial mobile network operator. The Supplemental Coverage from Space framework, established by the FCC, normally requires satellite operators to sign spectrum leasing agreements with traditional telecom operators. SpaceX, however, can now bypass this requirement since it independently owns its own spectrum.
Elon Musk's company has also received FCC approval to launch 15,000 next-generation satellites dedicated to mobile coverage, capable of handling more data than previous models. According to the company, this constellation is intended to be paired with an "advanced terrestrial deployment" to connect devices.
SpaceX's Big Ambitions
SpaceX first entered the mobile phone market by partnering with traditional players, including U.S. carrier T-Mobile. Since summer 2025, the two companies have offered a service that lets users connect to the network via Elon Musk's satellites in remote areas where T-Mobile lacks the necessary ground infrastructure. But SpaceX now aims to break away from its partner and go it alone, carving out its own share of the market at the expense of established mobile operators.
Elon Musk's company has plenty of assets to make this happen. Its small, low-cost satellites are launched three times a week, with 20 to 60 satellites per launch, giving it a highly resilient fleet and the ability to quickly replace failed satellites at minimal cost. It also has partnerships with cloud giants—Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle—allowing it to integrate with enterprise cloud systems, AI, and edge computing. The company has also begun rolling out a hybrid terrestrial-satellite mobile network, combining traditional cell towers with small cellular antennas on existing Starlink terminals installed on rooftops. This infrastructure should allow it to provide ground coverage without spending billions on costly traditional installations.
By weaving this network, Starlink is aiming beyond just mobile telephony. It wants to deliver a fully integrated connectivity service that covers the entire information loop, enabling consumers to use AI from their phones and businesses to deploy advanced workloads via the cloud. If the program succeeds, Elon Musk's company could become the backbone of the future digital economy.
Still, the outcome is far from certain. SpaceX's next-generation mobile satellites are heavier than previous models and depend on Starship, so everything hinges on SpaceX's ability to get Starship operational quickly. Several analysts also consider the project of small antennas on Starlink terminals to be speculative, and estimate that a truly independent mobile service from SpaceX is unlikely to launch before 2028 to 2030.
This article was automatically translated from French. Read the original version: https://www.journaldunet.com/business/1556799-le-reve-telecom-de-spacex-prend-forme/