Elon Musk, Starlink Target ‘Complete Phone Coverage in America’ Following Recent Acquisition

SpaceX Starlink Mobile SpaceX SpaceX is making a move that could turn its satellite service into a serious rival for the biggest phone carriers in the United States.

A new airwaves purchase fills what the company calls a “key gap,” and the market reacted immediately.

SpaceX announced that it has agreed to buy a nationwide set of low-band spectrum licenses, and the company says the purchase paves the way for Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the US. Elon Musk summed it up on X by calling it “the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America.” He followed up with a short verdict, calling it a very big deal.

We announced an agreement to acquire a nationwide low-band spectrum license portfolio that will pave the way for @Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the US.With this new spectrum and our Gen2 constellation, Starlink Mobile can ensure Americans have access to… pic.twitter.com/uVktZ0g3tu

SpaceX explained why the airwaves matter. Its Starlink Mobile service already plans to use global 2 GHz mid-band spectrum, which carries the heavy traffic. The new low band holdings add a coverage layer. Low band signals can pass through walls and other obstacles, so they can reach phones inside buildings, which has been a weak spot for signals sent from space.

This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America https://t.co/kKjP072xZf

The company also described what it hopes to build. SpaceX said that with the new spectrum and its Gen2 constellation, Starlink Mobile can become the first network operator to deploy both satellite and terrestrial spectrum. The goal is a network that works indoors, outdoors, in traditional cellular dead zones, and in remote areas.

Investors noticed quickly. Shares of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile slipped in after hours trading on the day of the announcement, and they fell again the next day.

SpaceX agreed to acquire up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band. The seller is Grain Management, an investment firm focused on digital infrastructure. Reports say Grain bought the airwaves from T-Mobile earlier this year.

The deal still needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The companies did not disclose the price in their announcements, although Reuters reported a figure of about $8 billion.

SpaceX said most existing phones already support this band, which it called underused. That detail matters because it means customers would not need new devices. UBS analyst John Hodulik told investors that the airwaves are compatible with existing handsets and that he does not foresee obstacles to regulatory approval.

The purchase also answers an earlier criticism. Tesla commentator Sawyer Merritt pointed to a claim from AT&T’s CEO that Starlink Mobile could not penetrate walls. Merritt said the new 800 MHz spectrum was SpaceX’s response, and Musk shared his post.

The spectrum deal landed alongside another piece of news from the sky. The FCC approved SpaceX’s application for a next-generation Starlink Mobile constellation of up to 15,000 satellites.

The Commission released this order last week, on October 6, unveiling the massive development in SpaceX’s case. According to a report from CNET, the satellites are designed to use 2 GHz spectrum and will fly at low altitudes, between roughly 326 and 335 kilometers.

SpaceX says these V2 satellites will deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of its current direct to device satellites. It describes them as a way to bring high-speed service straight to unmodified phones anywhere in the world.

Today the company offers direct-to-device service from a constellation of about 650 satellites, making it one of the largest and most significant programs now available worldwide.

The 2 GHz airwaves came from a separate acquisition. In 2025, SpaceX agreed to buy spectrum from EchoStar in a deal reported at $17 billion. The FCC order says testing on some of those bands can begin only after the second step of the EchoStar deal closes, which is scheduled for November 30, 2027. SpaceX expects its first V2 satellites to start launching around that time.

That timeline means the full vision is not here yet. A clear date for wide availability has not been announced, and the new low band purchase still needs regulatory approval. The pieces are coming together, though. SpaceX would have satellites overhead, mid-band capacity for speed, and low-band spectrum for reach inside buildings.

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Starlink is SpaceX’s satellite network, built from thousands of spacecraft in low Earth orbit. It started as a broadband internet service, and it is designed to be available almost anywhere, including places where cables and cell towers do not reach.

By October, trackers counted about 11,000 Starlink satellites still in orbit after nearly 13,000 launches. One report said the broadband service had reached 13 million consumer customers by mid 2026. Starlink also runs a direct to cell service that connects regular phones to satellites.

Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX, the company he founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with a long term goal of helping people live on other planets. SpaceX builds rockets and spacecraft and runs the Starlink network. Its shares now trade publicly under the ticker SPCX.

Musk also leads Tesla. He shared his reaction to this deal directly on X, where he called the spectrum purchase the last critical piece for complete phone coverage in America.

Starlink Mobile is the name SpaceX now uses for its satellite based cellular service, which was previously called Starlink Direct to Cell. Instead of relying only on cell towers, it uses satellites to connect everyday phones directly. SpaceX has said it wants this to become a full mobile network.

The current version is limited. It runs on about five megahertz of bandwidth, which makes it suitable for basic tasks like texting and light apps. In the United States, the existing service runs on T-Mobile spectrum, and T-Mobile is SpaceX’s current partner.

The next version is meant to change that. With the EchoStar spectrum and the new satellites, SpaceX expects a major jump in speed. Japanese carrier KDDI, which announced a Starlink Mobile V2 agreement in September, says the next generation service will support voice calls, streaming, browsing, and more demanding apps. SpaceX has not given a date for when that service will reach customers in the US.