SpaceX wants a ground network to go with its satellites. According to a Bloomberg report on October 22, the company aims to secure access to at least 80,000 cell sites across the United States and is in talks with at least one major tower owner to get there.
What’s reported
People familiar with the matter told Bloomberg the agreements would put SpaceX on a path toward building a fourth nationwide wireless carrier alongside AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Crown Castle is named as one of the companies in talks. When asked on its earnings call whether it was discussing leases with SpaceX, Amazon or other satellite-based providers, Crown Castle CEO Chris Hillabrant said, “You can assume that we’re talking to all parties,” and declined to discuss specific customers. American Tower declined to comment, and SpaceX and Vertical Bridge didn’t respond to Bloomberg. No agreement, price or timeline has been announced.
The scale involved
Reuters, summarizing the report, noted that 80,000 sites would equal about half of the roughly 158,500 purpose-built cell towers operating in the US last year, citing the Wireless Infrastructure Association. Crown Castle runs about 40,000 US towers and American Tower about 42,000. TD Cowen estimated that a nationwide terrestrial network would cost more than $80 billion and take many years to build.
How it fits Starlink Mobile
SpaceX has been assembling the pieces quickly. It has been buying low-band spectrum, the FCC recently approved its purchase of Tristar’s AWS-3 licenses, and it has approval to launch satellites built to connect directly to phones. On SpaceX’s Q3 call, Elon Musk said, “We will be building out our terrestrial networks so there’s broad-based connectivity anywhere that SpaceX and Starlink are allowed to operate.”
Why it matters
Satellites alone struggle with indoor coverage and dense cities. Tower access would let SpaceX offer a conventional mobile network backed by satellite coverage everywhere else, which would be a real challenge to the big three carriers if it gets built.
Sources: Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance and Reuters.