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SpaceX wants to turn Starlink Mobile into a full-fledged mobile carrier, and it expects to hit the Big Three wireless giants in the process.
During SpaceX's first earnings call since its June IPO, President Gwynne Shotwell said the company plans to launch its next-generation Starlink Mobile satellites in 2027 and start providing an upgraded service by the end of that year.
The network would use the extra wireless capacity — 65 megahertz of spectrum — that the company agreed to acquire from EchoStar. Shotwell said the result would be "100 times better" than Starlink Mobile's current service.
Shotwell also namedropped the three dominating wireless carriers in the US — AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile — and said Starlink will provide a better service.
"I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better," she said.
Starlink Mobile currently acts mostly as a satellite safety net for phone carriers. The company's satellites operate like cell towers in space, connecting phones when on-the-ground service is unavailable, including in remote areas or emergency situations.
In the US, T-Mobile partners with SpaceX to provide satellite-to-cellular connectivity through a service branded as T-Satellite. The service isn't a full substitute for a standard 4G or 5G plan.
A T-Mobile spokesperson pointed to comments made by CEO Srini Gopalan during the company's second-quarter earnings call in July. Gopalan said satellite-to-cell service is complementary to traditional networks, as it accounted for 0.0003% of T-Mobile's network usage during the busiest summer months.
SpaceX said it also plans to build a terrestrial network alongside its satellite system. Shotwell said on the call that the company could deploy lower-cost, smaller cellular base stations with Starlink dishes.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the resulting network would provide better connectivity and higher bandwidth "than what is currently available from cellular providers."
"Instead of having to deploy these very expensive and difficult-to-locate, large cellular base stations, we feel reasonably confident that we can deploy a large number of small stations," he said.
In May, the Federal Communications Commission approved the transfer of EchoStar spectrum to SpaceX, opening the opportunity for SpaceX to use it for satellite, terrestrial, or hybrid applications.
Shotwell declined to disclose the project's capital costs.
Spokespeople for Verizon and AT&T did not respond to a request for comment.
