SpaceX headquarters is proven in Hawthorne, California, U.S. June 5, 2025.
Daniel Cole | Reuters
Elon Musk’s SpaceX mentioned Monday it’ll purchase wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar for its Starlink satellite tv for pc community for about $17 billion, a serious deal essential to increasing Starlink’s nascent 5G connectivity enterprise.
The corporations additionally agreed to a deal that may allow EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers to entry Starlink direct-to-cell service to increase satellite tv for pc service to areas with out service.
The spectrum buy permits SpaceX to begin constructing and deploying upgraded, laser-connected satellites that the corporate mentioned will increase the cell community’s capability by “more than 100 times.”
Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO, SpaceX, mentioned the deal will assist the corporate “end mobile dead zones around the world… With exclusive spectrum, SpaceX will develop next-generation Starlink Direct to Cell satellites, which will have a step change in performance and enable us to enhance coverage for customers wherever they are in the world.”
The information despatched shares of EchoStar surging 19% in early buying and selling. Shares of U.S. wireless carriers AT&T and T-Mobile had been down greater than 3% and Verizon was down greater than 2%.
The push comes amid fast-rising wireless utilization. In 2024, Americans used a file 132 trillion megabytes of cellular knowledge, up 35% over the prior all-time file, trade group CTIA mentioned Monday.
SpaceX has launched greater than 8,000 Starlink satellites since 2020, constructing a distributed community in low-Earth orbit which has seen demand from militaries, transportation companies and shoppers in rural areas.
Roughly 600 of these satellites — which SpaceX calls “cell towers in space” — have been launched since January 2024 for the corporate’s direct-to-cell community, orbiting nearer to Earth than the remainder of the constellation.
Crucial to the deployment of these bigger satellites is Starship, SpaceX’s large next-generation rocket, which has been below improvement for roughly a decade. Increasingly complicated take a look at launches have drawn the rocket nearer to its first operational Starlink missions, anticipated early subsequent yr.
The deal comes months after the Federal Communications Commission questioned EchoStar’s use of mobile-satellite service spectrum and raised considerations about whether or not it was assembly its obligations to deploy 5G in the nation.
EchoStar mentioned it anticipates that the transaction with SpaceX and the AT&T deal will resolve the FCC’s inquiries.
An FCC spokesperson mentioned the “deals that EchoStar reached with AT&T and Starlink hold the potential to supercharge competition, extend innovative new services to millions of Americans, and boost U.S. leadership in next-gen connectivity.”
The firm in August offered some nationwide wireless spectrum licenses to AT&T for $23 billion. AT&T agreed to accumulate 50 MHz of nationwide mid-band and low-band spectrum.
President Donald Trump beforehand prodded EchoStar and FCC Chair Brendan Carr to succeed in an amicable deal for the corporate’s wireless spectrum licenses.
SpaceX pays as much as $8.5 billion in money and challenge as much as $8.5 billion in inventory. SpaceX has additionally agreed to cowl roughly $2 billion in curiosity funds on EchoStar’s debt obligations by means of late 2027.
After the sale, EchoStar will proceed working its satellite tv for pc tv service Dish TV, streaming TV platform Sling, web service Hughes and its Boost Mobile model.
SpaceX had aggressively pressed the FCC to reallocate underused airwaves for satellite-to-phone service after alleging EchoStar failed to fulfill sure obligations.
In a letter to the FCC in April, SpaceX mentioned EchoStar’s spectrum in the two gigahertz band “remains ripe for sharing among next-generation satellite systems” and that the corporate has left “valuable mid-band spectrum chronically underused.”
The deal with EchoStar will permit SpaceX to function Starlink direct-to-cell providers on frequencies it owns, reasonably than relying solely on these leased from cellular carriers like T-Mobile.
In May, the FCC permitted Verizon’s $20 billion deal to accumulate fiber-optic web supplier Frontier Communications. Verizon spent $52 billion to accumulate and clear key spectrum in 2021.