SpaceX is preparing to turn Starlink into a full-fledged mobile phone service, laying out plans to combine its satellite network with ground-based cellular infrastructure and compete more directly with AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile.
During SpaceX’s second-quarter earnings call Tuesday, President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said the company intends to build a terrestrial component for Starlink Mobile using wireless spectrum acquired from EchoStar. The goal is to create what she described as a true mobile service, rather than limiting Starlink to satellite coverage that fills gaps when conventional cellular networks aren’t available.
SpaceX’s approach could look very different from the sprawling tower networks built by traditional wireless carriers. Shotwell said small cellular base stations could potentially be installed alongside Starlink broadband equipment and deployed around the country as needed. Those ground stations would work alongside a new generation of direct-to-device Starlink satellites, which SpaceX expects to begin launching next year.
The strategy is possible in large part because SpaceX has secured valuable nationwide wireless spectrum from EchoStar. That spectrum includes frequencies that can support both satellite and terrestrial communications, giving SpaceX something it previously lacked: the ability to build a mobile network on the ground while simultaneously expanding coverage from space. SpaceX has indicated terrestrial service could begin as early as the end of 2027.
For consumers, the long-term idea is straightforward: a Starlink phone service could use ground-based cellular coverage where available and satellites where it isn’t, potentially reducing the dead zones that still exist across rural areas, highways and remote parts of the country. Building a network capable of challenging America’s three dominant wireless carriers would take enormous investment and years of deployment, but SpaceX has now made clear that Starlink’s ambitions extend well beyond home internet. It wants a place on your phone, too.
