SpaceX strikes spectrum deal, paving way for Starlink to become major US mobile carrier

Company says communications authority also approved 15,000 next-generation satellites to deliver service directly to standard mobile devices

SpaceX announced on Thursday an agreement to acquire nationwide low-band spectrum licenses, advancing plans to turn Starlink Mobile into a major US mobile carrier through a network combining satellite and terrestrial services. The agreement covers up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band, the company said in a statement. The acquisition remains subject to final Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval. SpaceX said the spectrum would address a key technical gap by allowing signals to penetrate obstacles such as walls, helping provide coverage inside buildings. Most existing mobile devices already support the band, it added. The low-band frequencies would complement Starlink Mobile's global 2 GHz mid-band spectrum, which the company plans to use for high-bandwidth capacity in the US. Once regulatory approval is secured, SpaceX plans to combine its satellite-to-mobile constellation with terrestrial infrastructure to provide connectivity indoors, outdoors and in areas without cellular coverage. Separately, SpaceX said the FCC this week approved its next-generation Starlink Mobile constellation application, authorizing the launch of 15,000 satellites optimized for global operations using 2 GHz spectrum. The company said its V2 Starlink Mobile satellites would deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of the current generation, supporting high-speed connections directly to unmodified mobile devices. The FCC also authorized additional communications bands that would allow the satellites to use Starlink's existing ground gateway network, according to SpaceX.