- SpaceX says it will build a terrestrial component for Starlink Mobile using the 65 MHz of spectrum it’s acquiring from EchoStar
- Instead of a traditional macro network, SpaceX is talking about using small stations tied to Starlink dishes, with service starting by end of next year
- Elon Musk surmised that it will probably build something better than anything currently available from terrestrial cellular providers
Make no mistake: SpaceX intends to build a terrestrial mobile network, and it’s got enough spectrum to get it off the ground (pun intended).
That was the message Tuesday from SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell on the company’s first earnings call after its record-setting IPO in June.
“The spectrum that we purchased from EchoStar does have terrestrial components, so we definitely intend to build out the terrestrial component,” Shotwell said during the Q&A. “You will have not only the capacity from the satellites themselves, but you will have a buildout of the terrestrial, basically the hardware and systems necessary to make a true mobile service exactly what you want it to be.”
Speculation has been building in the wireless industry about what SpaceX’s true intentions are with Starlink Mobile since reports have filtered out from various sources that it intends to compete head-on with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, all of which have said they’re not interested in doing an MVNO with Starlink Mobile.
SpaceX is getting 65 megahertz of bandwidth through its EchoStar transaction, but that is peanuts compared to the amount of spectrum each of the Big 3 wireless carriers holds.
That doesn’t appear to be a deterrent for SpaceX and Starlink Mobile. Far from it, to hear Shotwell and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tell it.
Starlink Mobile: Many times better
Starlink is currently operating a direct-to-device (D2D) service using about 5 MHz of bandwidth, which it obtains through local telco providers. But it will have 65 MHz of bandwidth available when the EchoStar deal closes.
It’s got that terrestrial spectrum, plus next-generation satellites that will be launched with even more capabilities.
“You could look at Starlink Mobile [as] leveraging the next generation satellite and the EchoStar spectrum as being 100 times better, 10 times 10 better than what we've got right now, and it's a pretty decent service,” she said, noting that voice and video calls are currently available via Signal and WhatsApp. “We anticipate really strong uptake of that capability.”
As far as revenue is concerned, she said that between the Big 3 in the U.S. – AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon – they make roughly $600 billion a year.
Starlink sees that ripe for the picking. “I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers, because I think our service will be better," said Shotwell. "We will eliminate dead zones,” leveraging the satellites to cover areas unreachable by a land-based network.
It will be better than terrestrial systems during natural disasters, too, she added.
“I'm quite excited about Starlink Mobile going forward. We will start to fly the satellites next year, and we will start providing service end of next year,” she said.
Shotwell declined to talk about the capex for deploying a terrestrial network, saying that basically, the gear that holds a Starlink broadband dish could house “these little femtocells” around the country and “you deploy that as you need it.”
That way, “you don’t have to necessarily spend, you know, 10 or many billions of dollars in low-band spectrum all up front before you deploy your system. So that's why I don't want to talk about the capex for building out the terrestrial because we have a lot of really kind of great and new ideas for how we're going to do that, and I think it will be quite capex efficient,” she added.
Musk: Starlink Mobile’s higher bandwidth
Without giving away any trade secrets (!!!), Musk chimed in, saying an important point is instead of deploying expensive and difficult to locate large cellular base stations, they feel “reasonably confident” they can deploy a large number of small stations.
Essentially, “they’re really just installing Starlink dishes that also provide connectivity in the mobile spectrum bands and have them all over the place. The Starlink antennas are located on the roofs of houses and businesses… They’ve got sort of a clear view for providing connectivity directly to cell phones on the ground,” Musk said.
In fact, “providing connectivity that is, we think, probably better and higher bandwidth than what is currently available from cellular providers,” he said.
Read more Fierce stories about SpaceX and Starlink Mobile:
Now SpaceX is talking to Charter about a mobile offer: report
SpaceX plans bigger Starlink mobile push in US: report
Verizon CEO shuts down Starlink MVNO talk, touts strong Q2 comeback