// THE VERGE — MOBILE & WEB
SpaceX is coming for T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon
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‘I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers.’
‘I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers.’
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SpaceX is preparing to build a terrestrial mobile network to “acquire quite a few” of the customers now subscribed to T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. The message to compete head-to-head with the US carriers was delivered by SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and CEO Elon Musk during the Q&A section of the company’s first earnings call.
“The spectrum that we purchased from EchoStar does have terrestrial components, so we definitely intend to build out the terrestrial component,” said Shotwell. “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.”
SpaceX already operates a direct-to-device service dubbed “Starlink Mobile.” It augments carrier networks — like T-Mobile, in the US — by providing limited messaging and data in cellular dead zones. The service will be “100 times better,” according to Shotwell, when it starts leveraging the bandwidth acquired from EchoStar and next-generation Starlink Mobile (V2) satellites that “will start flying next year.”