Starlink Mobile's latest move could spell trouble for the big three carriers

Americans have relied on the big three carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, for years now, and although that isn’t changing right now, SpaceX is positioning Starlink Mobile to compete as a new nationwide carrier option in the future. The company has already brought satellite internet to over 150 countries, and it wants to eventually be able to offer Americans another mobile network that goes head-to-head with the big three.

The Elon Musk-founded company just made two major announcements toward the goal: It has an agreement in place to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum license portfolio, and the FCC has approved Starlink Mobile’s Gen2 constellation application this week.

The former should help SpaceX address one of the biggest challenges with its existing satellite connectivity: offering reliable indoor coverage. For reference, the agreement in place is to acquire up to 14MHz of paired spectrum in the 800MHz band from Grain Management.

Frequencies in the 800MHz band can travel long distances and penetrate buildings and other indoor obstacles to provide reliable coverage. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon all use low-band frequencies in the 600MHz to 850MHz range for coverage, paired with mid-and-high-band spectrum for faster speeds, and SpaceX wants to do the same.

Although not certain yet, this could be implemented by a Starlink satellite beaming down a signal to a ground cellular station, which would then use the 800MHz spectrum to broadcast cellular signals to nearby smartphones. According to The Wall Street Journal, quoting those familiar with the matter, SpaceX is shelling out $8 billion in cash for rights to use the spectrum.

The other big announcement concerns the company’s future satellites. The FCC has approved Starlink Mobile’s Gen2 constellation application, which gives SpaceX the green light to deploy about 15,000 satellites that are optimized for the 2GHz spectrum globally. The company says the Gen 2 satellites will deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of its current-generation satellites.

Together, these developments could bring SpaceX closer to being able to offer a service that doesn’t just cater to underserved areas. Realistically, though, there still seems to be a long road ahead. SpaceX would need to build or acquire ground-based stations to make use of its newly acquired spectrum. The company could partner with one of the big carriers, though according to Fierce Network, none of the companies want to do an MVNO deal with SpaceX.

SpaceX hasn’t yet shared publicly shared plans for how it intends to put its new spectrum to use.