SpaceX simply fired off one of many largest pictures but within the spectrum wars, agreeing to pay $17 billion to take over an enormous chunk of wi-fi airwaves from EchoStar for Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell companies.

The deal is essentially the most aggressive sign but that SpaceX needs to rule the satellite-to-phone market.

The importance of the sale, which sees SpaceX paying a mixture of $8.5 billion in money and $8.5 billion in SpaceX inventory, facilities round a finite useful resource: spectrum. Spectrum refers back to the vary of radio frequencies that carry wi-fi indicators for all the pieces from cellphone calls to texts to GPS and satellite tv for pc communications.

The U.S. authorities, through the Federal Communications Fee, divides spectrum into “bands.” There are solely so many usable frequencies, and customers should coordinate to keep away from interference. To lift the stakes even greater, solely sure ranges work effectively for telephones and satellites, which shrinks the pool of usable bands even additional and creates a fierce competitors for entry.

The FCC auctions long-term licenses at excessive costs to non-public companies. The prime mobile bands had been predominately amassed by nationwide wi-fi carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, whereas incumbent satellite tv for pc operators like Iridium and Globalstar held separate bands.

In 2024, the FCC permitted a brand new regulatory framework referred to as Supplemental Protection from Area that paved the best way for satellites to legally lengthen provider networks. SCS lets a satellite tv for pc operator, in partnership with a terrestrial provider, use the provider’s current cellphone spectrum to fill wi-fi protection gaps as a secondary service. Later that 12 months, SpaceX formally started providing its Direct-to-Cell service to T-Cell customers as a premium add-on.

That framework paved the best way for SpaceX’s take care of EchoStar. It created a construction to let satellite tv for pc operators faucet into terrestrial networks.. And now, with the EchoStar deal, SpaceX doesn’t have to associate with a terrestrial licensee for spectrum. As an alternative of relying on relationships with different companies, SpaceX has turn out to be the license holder.  

After all, SpaceX is within the enterprise of constructing rockets and satellites, not cell telephones, so it nonetheless is determined by the {hardware} makers and carriers to achieve tons of of thousands and thousands of shoppers. However SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has floated the thought of constructing a cellphone underneath his different enterprise, X, which merged with xAI earlier this 12 months. Mush has taken purpose specifically at Apple’s ongoing collaborations with OpenAI.  In August, X and xAI filed a lawsuit towards the 2 firms, alleging anti-competitive practices.

Apple satellite tv for pc options like Emergency SOS are enabled through a partnership with Canadian agency Globalstar, and Apple has dedicated over $1.5 billion to additional increase satellite-enabled iPhone companies. However some analysts are questioning if SpaceX’s transfer is leverage to steer Apple to cooperate with SpaceX as an alternative of Globalstar.  

This isn’t the primary time SpaceX has flexed its muscle within the spectrum wars. 

The corporate spent years efficiently battling Dish (a subsidiary of EchoStar) over the 12 GHz band that SpaceX wished to make use of for Starlink. It additionally beefed over Dish/Echostar’s lack of use of the AWS-4 band – one of many spectrum licenses it ended up buying.

Individually, SpaceX and Kuiper have additionally sparred in FCC filings over interference guidelines and the way competing satellite tv for pc megaconstellations ought to share spectrum.

They’ve additionally been a significant power propelling the FCC to revisit satellite tv for pc spectrum-sharing guidelines. Earlier this 12 months, the Fee opened a proper rulemaking to modernize satellite tv for pc sharing limits after a petition from SpaceX, with Kuiper and others submitting in help.