Why SpaceX made a $17B bet on the direct-to-cell market

SpaceX simply removed the biggest shots in the spectrum wars, agreed to pay the payment $ 17 billion Receiving a large amount of wireless airwave from Ekosta for Direct-to Cell Services of Starlink.

The deal is still the most aggressive signal that wants to rule the SpaceX satellite-to-phone market.

The significance of the sale, which provides Spacex 8.5 billion cash and $ 8.5 billion in SpaceX stock, is a limited resource: centers around the spectrum. The spectrum refers to the range of radio frequencies that carry wireless signals for everything from phone calls to GPS and satellite communication.

The US government divides the spectrum into “bands” through the Federal Communication Commission. There are only many usable frequencies here and users must adjust to avoid intervention. To increase the higher parts, only certain ranges work well for phones and satellites, which further shrinks the pool of usable bands and create a fatal competition for access.

I took a long -term license at the FCC private companies. Prim cellular bands were originally collected by a national wireless carrier like AT&T and Veries, while satellite operators, such as iridium and global stars, have separate bands.

In 2024, the FCC has approved a new regulatory structure called complementary coverage, which has paved the way to expand carrier networks legally for satellite. SCS allows a satellite operator to use the existing phone spectrum of the carrier to fill the wireless coverage gaps as a secondary service, with a secondary service. After that year, SpaceX officially started providing cell services from T-Mobile users as premium add-on.

This structure has paved the way for SpaceX’s contract with the ekostar. It has created a structure to tap the satellite operators on terrestrial networks. And now, with the Eocter Agreement, SpaceX does not need to be partner with any ground licensing for the spectrum. SpaceX has become licensing depending on the relationship with other companies.

Of course, there is a business of rocket and satellite, not the SpaceX cell phone, so it still depends on hardware manufacturers and careers to reach a few million customers. However, the CEO of SpaceX Elon Mask floats the idea of ​​making a phone under his other business, X Joy Early this year. Apple’s ongoing cooperation with the OpenAI, especially the musk has taken a goal. In August, X and Jai Have filed a case Two companies, allegations of anti -competitive practice.

Apple satellite features like the emergency SOS have been enabled by partnership with the Canadian Farm Globalstar and Apple has committed more than $ 1.5 billion to expand satellite-enabled iPhone services. But Some analyst Wondering whether this step in SpaceX is lifting Apple to help with SpaceX instead of Globalstar.

This is not the first time that SpaceX spectrum has made its muscles flexible in wars.

The company has successfully fought with the dishes (the ecoster’s auxiliary agency) for several years rather than the 12 GHz band for SpaceX Starlink. It is also proud of the lack of use of the AWS -4 band of the dish/ekoster -it has ended with a spectrum of license.

Separately, FCC filing has also been spread over the rules for intervention of SpaceX and Quaper and how competitive satellite megaconsteles should be spelled.

They also had a great power to drive the FCC to rewrite the Satellite spectrum. Earlier this year, after a petition from the Commission SpaceX, Qiper and others opened a formal rule to modernize the satellite sharing limit after file in support.