Analysis-SpaceX's spectrum deal still leaves it far from rivaling telecom giants

FILE PHOTO: The SpaceX logo in this illustration taken June 11, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo

Oct 16 (Reuters) - SpaceX called its recent ⁠multibillion-dollar purchase of US airwaves a critical step towards building a mobile network, but constructing a true rival to major American carriers will require ⁠a terrestrial network and likely years of work and billions more.

Starlink became a money maker by offering internet service in rural and ‌sparsely populated areas, where it faced little competition, as well as changing to easy-to-set-up home packages at a competitive price. Mobile will be harder.

Cities are particularly tough places for mobile telephony and are technologically challenging for mobile-to-satellite connections.

The rocket and satellite company will likely need to invest heavily in ground infrastructure, customer service, handset subsidies and promotions — costly parts of the wireless business in which AT&T, ​Verizon and T-Mobile already have extensive operations.

Building a network would cost more than $80 billion, according to ⁠TD Cowen, and add to SpaceX's capital demands as it ⁠pours money into its Starship rocket program, AI infrastructure, and Terafab chip factory.

"It's just hard to imagine that this is all going to get done within ⁠a ‌decade," said Julie Zhu, a research analyst at MoffettNathanson. "In the decade or so leading up to 2023, the big three spent about $650 billion in capex to build in networks that ostensibly were already finished."

Most phones have small antennas and limited transmitting power that make reliable satellite connections more challenging because ⁠satellites orbit hundreds of kilometers above Earth, much farther away than cell towers.

"There are too ​many pitfalls for satellite to be the only source ‌of data," said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

SPACEX PUBLISHES HYBRID SPACE-TERRESTRIAL PLAN

SpaceX has called the latest deal, in which it ⁠acquired 800 MHz spectrum licenses ​from Grain at a price a source pegged at nearly $8 billion, a "critical next step" for the nascent Starlink Mobile to provide high-speed mobile service.

"Starlink Mobile will deploy a flexible architecture combining our satellite-to-mobile constellation in space with an advanced terrestrial deployment that can seamlessly connect devices everywhere," including "indoors, outdoors, in cellular dead zones, and everywhere in between", SpaceX said, announcing the ⁠purchase.

SpaceX has received regulatory authorization for up to 15,000 Starlink Mobile satellites and plans ​to deploy traditional terrestrial infrastructure such as antennas on towers and rooftops — a hybrid approach rather than pure satellite-to-phone — it laid out in a regulatory filing made public last week.

In a Starlink Mobile system, satellites could connect directly to mobile phones and indirectly by relaying signals through ground infrastructure. This is similar to the technology of ⁠a partnership between Starlink and T-Mobile, which provides the terrestrial network while Starlink supplies the satellite connectivity that fills in where there are no towers. That is a T-Mobile-branded service.

SpaceX in theory could strike a deal with one of the big three companies to use its ground infrastructure, what is known as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, arrangement. However, SpaceX "appear to be going after a more build-your-own approach to a terrestrial network since nobody will offer them wholesale MVNO," Sag ​said.

SpaceX would need several times more spectrum to match the holdings of the three big mobile companies, although current ⁠spectrum might be enough to start. "It is for a company with zero mobile subscribers, plenty of runway, and a robust device/equipment ecosystem," TD Cowen said.

Would-be rivals dismissed the ​idea that the effort was an imminent threat.

T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer John Saw said SpaceX's spectrum ‌would not be enough to match the capacity and performance of established mobile networks, ​while Katie Magnotta, Verizon's associate vice president of corporate communications, said, "A company can have billions of dollars of spectrum, but if they do not have the network to use it, it's just empty airwaves."

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Joyjeet Das)

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资料图片：这张插图拍摄于2026年6月11日，图中为SpaceX的标志。路透社/Dado Ruvic/插图/资料图片

10 月 16 日（路透社）——SpaceX 称其最近斥资数十亿美元购买美国无线电频谱是构建移动网络的关键一步，但要构建一个真正能与美国主要运营商匹敌的网络，还需要地面网络，而且可能需要数年时间和数十亿美元的投入。

Starlink通过在农村和人口稀少的地区提供互联网服务而盈利，这些地区的竞争较小，此外，它还推出了易于安装且价格具有竞争力的家庭套餐。移动业务的发展将会更加艰难。

城市是移动电话信号传输特别困难的地方，而且在技术上也难以实现移动电话与卫星之间的连接。

这家火箭和卫星公司可能需要在地面基础设施、客户服务、手机补贴和促销活动方面投入巨资——这些都是无线业务中成本高昂的部分，而 AT&T、Verizon 和 T-Mobile 已经在这些领域开展了大量业务。

据 TD Cowen 称，建设一个网络将耗资超过 800 亿美元，这将增加 SpaceX 的资金需求，因为该公司正在向其星舰火箭计划、人工智能基础设施和 Terafab 芯片工厂投入资金。

“很难想象这一切能在十年内完成，”莫菲特纳森公司的研究分析师朱莉·朱表示。“在截至2023年的十年左右时间里，三大电信巨头花费了约6500亿美元的资本支出，用于建设那些表面上已经完工的网络。”

大多数手机的天线很小，发射功率有限，这使得可靠的卫星连接更具挑战性，因为卫星在地球上方数百公里的轨道上运行，比手机信号塔远得多。

“卫星作为唯一的数据来源存在太多缺陷，” Moor Insights & Strategy 的首席分析师 Anshel Sag 表示。

SpaceEx发布混合太空-地面计划

SpaceX 将最新达成的交易称为其新兴的 Starlink Mobile 提供高速移动服务的“关键下一步”，该交易中，SpaceX 以接近 80 亿美元的价格从 Grain 手中收购了 800 MHz 频谱许可证。

SpaceX 在宣布收购时表示：“Starlink Mobile 将部署一个灵活的架构，将我们在太空中的卫星到移动设备星座与先进的地面部署相结合，可以无缝连接任何地方的设备”，包括“室内、室外、蜂窝信号盲区以及介于两者之间的任何地方”。

SpaceX 已获得监管部门批准，可部署多达 15,000 颗星链移动卫星，并计划部署传统的地面基础设施，例如在塔楼和屋顶上安装天线——这是一种混合方法，而不是纯粹的卫星到手机——该公司在上周公开的一份监管文件中阐述了这一计划。

在星链移动系统中，卫星可以直接连接到手机，也可以通过地面基础设施中继信号间接连接。这与星链和T-Mobile合作的技术类似：T-Mobile提供地面网络，而星链则提供卫星连接，弥补没有信号塔覆盖的区域。这是T-Mobile品牌的移动服务。

理论上，SpaceX可以与三大电信公司之一达成协议，使用其地面基础设施，即所谓的移动虚拟网络运营商（MVNO）模式。然而，Sag表示，SpaceX“似乎正在寻求一种更倾向于自行构建地面网络的方式，因为没有人会向他们提供批发MVNO服务”。

SpaceX需要数倍于三大移动通信公司所拥有的频谱资源才能与之匹敌，尽管目前的频谱资源或许足以启动项目。TD Cowen表示：“对于一家移动用户数量为零、发展空间充足且拥有强大设备生态系统的公司而言，SpaceX的频谱资源至关重要。”

潜在的竞争对手驳斥了这一行动构成迫在眉睫的威胁的说法。

T-Mobile首席技术官John Saw表示，SpaceX的频谱不足以匹配现有移动网络的容量和性能；而Verizon公司企业通信副总裁Katie Magnotta则表示：“一家公司可以拥有价值数十亿美元的频谱，但如果没有网络来使用它，那只是闲置的无线电波。”

（Harshita Mary Varghese在班加罗尔报道；Peter Henderson和Joyjeet Das编辑）

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