SpaceX agreed on Thursday to buy Grain Management's nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio for Starlink Mobile, pending approval from the FCC. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile shares fell after hours on fears that a satellite rival that can reach phones indoors will start a price war.
Perspective Coverage
27 publishers
- Builder
- Builder 24%
- Operator
- Operator 34%
- Investor
- Investor 42%
Reality
- Evidence58
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives62
- Confidence70
T-Mobile's CTO calls SpaceX's reported $8B spectrum buy a starting point
SpaceX's reported $8 billion deal for Grain Management's 800MHz spectrum drew a public rebuttal from T-Mobile CTO John Saw. Saw calls spectrum only the starting point and satellite service a complement to terrestrial networks.
Reality
- Evidence35
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives75
- Confidence50
SpaceX's low-band spectrum deal sends AT&T and T-Mobile down about 9%
AT&T and T-Mobile fell about 9% and Verizon 6% on Friday morning after SpaceX said it was buying low-band spectrum from Grain Management. That spectrum alone cannot carry a nationwide network, so the carriers' first bill may come at spectrum auctions, where Evercore expects SpaceX to push up prices.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+40
- Incentives50
- Confidence50
T-Mobile's CTO says SpaceX's $8 billion spectrum buy leaves Starlink Mobile short of indoor coverage
SpaceX's reported $8 billion purchase of 14 MHz brings Starlink Mobile to roughly 80 MHz, T-Mobile CTO John Saw wrote, against his carrier's nearly 400 MHz. His wider argument is that most phone traffic happens indoors, where SpaceX would have to add coverage one building at a time.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption20
- Hype gap+35
- Incentives75
- Confidence50
FCC commissioners will vote Oct. 29 on auctioning 25MHz for satellite-to-phone service and on taking comment on 482MHz more. A clearing price would test the roughly $302 million a megahertz SpaceX paid EchoStar, by Reuters' figures.
Reality
- Evidence62
- Adoption30
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives65
- Confidence60
Bloomberg reports Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica are in early talks about one bid for the European third of the 2 GHz band, a licence that changes hands well before any EU constellation can carry phone traffic.
Reality
- Evidence45
- Adoption10
- Hype gap+25
- Incentives60
- Confidence50