![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/starlink-direct-to-cell-1440x993.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capability.<\/p>\n
Credit:
\n SpaceX<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
SpaceX said the next-generation system will support voice, texting, and high-speed data. Consumers will presumably have to pay more to access it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SpaceX MSS [mobile-satellite service] system will communicate with fixed and mobile earth stations and will be capable of providing connectivity virtually anywhere on Earth,\u201d SpaceX said.<\/p>\n
If all goes as planned, Starlink should be able to provide a much-improved service for smartphones in late 2027.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of contingencies here about whether 2027 is believable, but it does up the pressure on everyone else in this industry,\u201d telecom consultant Tim Farrar told Ars. \u201cThey\u2019ve all seen what\u2019s happened in the [satellite] broadband world where Starlink has established a sort of overwhelming dominance, and even people like Amazon with enormous resources are scrambling to try and catch up. It\u2019s very plausible that Starlink will now achieve a similar position in this direct-to-device market.\u201d<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
Getting the right chips into phones in time for the planned launch is one of the contingencies. \u201cMusk can go and get the Starlink team to build thousands of new big satellites. Hopefully he can get his Starship working to launch them all,\u201d Farrar said. But \u201cthere isn\u2019t a single device out there today that can support this spectrum for the high-bandwidth communications that Musk is looking to provide,\u201d he added. \u201cIf no one makes the handsets, then the service isn\u2019t any use to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk: \u201cPretty much everything is wrong in this article\u201d<\/h2>\n
Farrar published a blog post titled \u201cSpaceX disrupts everyone\u2019s plans again\u201d right after the deal was announced early last month. Farrar wrote that SpaceX has never been concerned much about return on investment when there is an opportunity \u201cto dominate an industry and force competitors out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk didn\u2019t like it. \u201cPretty much everything is wrong in this article,\u201d Musk claimed, without any explanation.<\/p>\n
Musk may not have liked the post\u2019s framing, but Farrar\u2019s overall message on Starlink was a bullish one. \u201cSpaceX has not only persuaded EchoStar to give up its D2D [direct to device] plans but has now made it much harder for any competitor to move forward when they can\u2019t possibly compete with SpaceX\u2019s speed in bringing new satellites to market,\u201d Farrar wrote.<\/p>\n
While Starlink isn\u2019t likely to make its own phone or become your primary mobile carrier, it could still play a big role in the cellular market. The major US carriers are partnering with satellite operators for service that complements their networks. In areas not reached by cell towers, consumers can get service from low-Earth orbit satellites. Starlink has a chance to be the primary provider.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just not clear how big the potential market is, Farrar said.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not going to be something that is a substitute for your everyday carrier,\u201d Farrar told Ars. \u201cIt\u2019s a complement, as Musk has said, in remote areas where you don\u2019t have any other alternatives. And the real question is going to be how many people want to buy that?\u2026 It\u2019s not clear whether this is something where you\u2019re going to get 20 or a hundred million people wanting to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n
From a technical perspective, adding spectrum support to phone chips isn\u2019t a major hurdle, wireless technology analyst Peter Rysavy told Ars. \u201cChip makers are pretty good at supporting a lot of different bands\u2026 it\u2019s very doable, and if the chipset vendors want to do it, it\u2019s very straightforward,\u201d Rysavy said.<\/p>\n
The question for Rysavy is whether phone makers see enough demand. \u201cThere has to be a demand for the service for it to actually get into phones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If, for some reason, SpaceX is unable to get spectrum support in phones, a possible solution would be making its own phone. Musk has said he\u2019d rather not, though. \u201cThe idea of making a phone makes me want to die\u2026 if we have to make a phone, we will, but we will aspire not to make a phone,\u201d he said last year.<\/p>\n
T-Mobile won\u2019t be the only Starlink cellular partner<\/h2>\n
Starlink already provides limited service to phones in a deal with T-Mobile. Texting was rolled out first, and T-Mobile just announced support for data, but only for a collection of \u201cessential off-the-grid apps\u201d like WhatsApp, AllTrails, AccuWeather, Google Maps, T-Mobile\u2019s T-Life app, and Musk\u2019s X social network.<\/p>\n
T-Mobile\u2019s US-exclusivity deal with Starlink will have run out by the time the purchased spectrum licenses are put into use, New Street Research telecom analyst Philip Burnett told Ars. Starlink \u201cwill certainly partner with more carriers and get additional subscribers to the service that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
AT&T and Verizon plan to offer similar service through deals with satellite operator AST SpaceMobile, but it has been slow-going. \u201cWe\u2019re waiting to see what AST can do and whether it can launch 45 satellites or more over the next year and a half,\u201d Farrar said. So far, AST SpaceMobile\u2019s \u201ctrack record has been one delay after another,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
AST deployed its first five commercial satellites in September 2024, relying on a SpaceX rocket for the launch. AST said in August that it plans to do at least five launches by the end of Q1 2026, with 45 to 60 satellites launched by the end of 2026. AST says its system is designed to use \u201cgateway stations on the ground that connect satellite signals to the terrestrial infrastructure of our mobile network operator partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
AST has \u201cbeen very late in delivering its satellites and getting things into orbit,\u201d Farrar said. He pointed to a 2022 comment by AT&T CEO John Stankey, who claimed that AT&T, thanks to its partnership with AST SpaceMobile, was 18 months ahead of T-Mobile and Starlink.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at where we are three years later, and you\u2019re like, well, if you\u2019re lucky, AST is 18 months behind Starlink, and it\u2019s probably more than that. So they\u2019ve not kept up,\u201d Farrar said. \u201cIt\u2019s all very well for them to claim technological superiority, but they don\u2019t have [many] satellites in space, and Starlink has 650 of them in space for this service.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verizon \u201cless committed\u201d to AST SpaceMobile than AT&T<\/h2>\n
In August 2024, the advertising industry\u2019s self-regulatory body told AT&T to stop running ads that misleadingly claimed the carrier was already offering cellular coverage from space.<\/p>\n
In July 2025, AT&T and AST SpaceMobile completed a test involving a Voice over LTE call and text routed through space to a phone using AT&T spectrum. Verizon completed a test video call with AST in February. But neither carrier has announced a launch date for commercial service with AST.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
Although AT&T and Verizon both partnered with AST, Burnett said Verizon is generally seen as \u201cless committed to that partnership than AT&T is\u201d and thus seems more likely to get on board with Starlink.<\/p>\n
Farrar agrees that Verizon is a likely candidate to make a deal with Starlink. Verizon has pursued deals with multiple satellite companies already, as it is planning to offer service with satellite provider Skylo while it waits for AST to build a network, he noted.<\/p>\n
AT&T and Verizon did not provide any comment when contacted by Ars.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Yahoo Finance last month, Stankey stressed the difficulty of providing service indoors, calling it the hardest part of running a terrestrial mobile network. \u201cThose are the harder things to do, and satellite is not particularly well-suited to meet those needs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For T-Mobile, losing its US exclusivity with Starlink would be a blow. \u201cOnce SpaceX owns its own spectrum, it can cut T-Mobile loose if it wants to, or it can go and serve everyone equally,\u201d Farrar said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s sort of what SpaceX has effectively implied it may do. It\u2019s already signed a deal with [EchoStar\u2019s] Boost Mobile, so it won\u2019t be exclusive on T-Mobile going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boost Mobile is set to gain access to the Starlink cellular service as part of the EchoStar spectrum sale, a company announcement said. But Boost Mobile is a minor player compared to T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T. Starlink getting on the three major carriers would be a bigger win for Musk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need the carriers. They want the carriers to offer it to their subscribers. from SpaceX\u2019s point of view, if it can sell through all three major carriers rather than just one, then that\u2019s three times more customers for it,\u201d Farrar said.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s Kuiper satellite system is another potential competitor, but it isn\u2019t yet offering home Internet service and hasn\u2019t announced specific plans for cellular. Amazon told UK regulators last year that it was \u201cexploring options for D2D services.\u201d Amazon\u2019s first 27 production satellites for fixed Internet service were launched in April.<\/p>\n
Kuiper is now up to five launches this year, totaling 129 satellites. This includes three batches of satellites sent into space for Amazon by United Launch Alliance\u2019s Atlas V rocket and two batches launched by SpaceX. Amazon said it will take over 80 missions to launch its constellation, with the next scheduled for October 8.<\/p>\n
SpaceX gets more leverage over Apple<\/h2>\n
Apple is partnering with satellite company Globalstar for the iPhone\u2019s emergency SOS feature. The service is free to iPhone users, at least for now. Apple declined a pitch from Musk, who reportedly sought a $5 billion payment from the iPhone maker in exchange for an 18-month exclusivity deal.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s some internal frustration at Apple about Globalstar\u2019s limited capabilities compared to Starlink, according to a May report by The Information. The concerns are that the Globalstar network is \u201coutdated, slow, and limited in what features it can support compared with offerings from SpaceX and others.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report said that after \u201cApple spurned Musk\u2019s offer of a Starlink deal in 2022, SpaceX began a campaign to make life harder for Apple in the satellite business. SpaceX filed multiple challenges to the valuable wireless spectrum rights licensed to Globalstar in filings to the Federal Communications Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to the spectrum purchase, Starlink may use its increased capacity to \u201chighly encourage Apple to sign a deal,\u201d Burnett told Ars. Globalstar\u2019s potential capacity is constrained because it \u201chas a lot fewer satellites than SpaceX does, and they also have less spectrum,\u201d he said. Buying the EchoStar spectrum will \u201cgive SpaceX more leverage in their negotiation with Apple.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rysavy said that \u201cbased on the amount of spectrum that Starlink has, and based on the number of satellites Starlink has, their direct-to-device network is going to be significantly greater in capacity and performance than what is possible with Globalstar.\u201d<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
Globalstar, which was founded in 1991, received FCC approval in August 2024 to deploy 26 new satellites \u201cto replenish and enhance its constellation\u201d for the provision of service to modern mobile phones. SpaceX had urged the FCC to reject Globalstar\u2019s request for authorization.<\/p>\n
Farrar said the SpaceX\/EchoStar deal increases the pressure on Apple to reconsider its Globalstar partnership. \u201cThe issues that were pointed out in that article from The Information were that Apple\u2019s senior leadership were worried that Starlink would move much more quickly than Apple could move in building new, better satellites. And now SpaceX has actually announced an intention to do that, and they have the spectrum to use on those new satellites,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s still a question about whether \u201call of this will come to fruition as quickly as Musk hopes,\u201d Farrar said. \u201cI mean, that\u2019s certainly not a foregone conclusion. There\u2019s a lot that needs to happen with Starship to actually launch these satellites.\u201d Apple will also have to decide whether not having Starlink\u2019s more capable service would make it \u201cdifficult to sell more iPhones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While Globalstar is Apple\u2019s default satellite provider, iPhone users can still access Starlink. The level of integration is affected by relations between Apple and Musk, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cApple was reluctant to support the service in models older than the iPhone 14, which frustrated Musk, said people with direct knowledge of the relationship,\u201d The Information report said. Musk seemingly won that battle, as carrier-provided satellite service is now available with the last five generations of iPhones, going back to the iPhone 13.<\/p>\n
Apple, AST, and Globalstar didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment. But executives from AST and Globalstar spoke about competing against Starlink at a recent World Space Business Week panel discussion, according to Space News:<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
\nAST president Scott Wisniewski and Barbee Ponder, general counsel and vice president regulatory affairs at Globalstar, both said SpaceX\u2019s moves validate their own strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows the true ability of Mobile Satellite Services spectrum and what it can do globally, quickly to provide enormous public benefits,\u201d Ponder said. \u201cSo we welcome that transaction. It will not change anything that we do in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Spectrum: Buying vs. renting<\/h2>\n
SpaceX has a spectrum lease agreement with T-Mobile that covers the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. This lets SpaceX use 10 MHz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band.<\/p>\n
Besides being a relatively small amount of spectrum, it has restrictions. The FCC lets SpaceX use the T-Mobile spectrum under what is called a \u201cSupplemental Coverage from Space\u201d authorization, allowing it to provide service in areas not covered by terrestrial cellular networks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea there is allowing the carriers to lease some of their spectrum to the satellite providers,\u201d but it\u2019s \u201cnot really satellite spectrum. The primary usage still has to be terrestrial,\u201d Burnett said.<\/p>\n
The 50 MHz of EchoStar\u2019s satellite spectrum doesn\u2019t have the same restriction. The greater amount of spectrum will boost speeds, and so will planned improvements in next-generation satellites. \u201cThey\u2019re launching new satellites that they claim will increase the capacity by 20 to 100 times,\u201d Burnett said.<\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s FCC filing described the improved satellites as follows:<\/p>\n
\nDriven by custom SpaceX-designed silicon and phased array antennas, the satellites will support thousands of spatial beams and higher bandwidth capability, enabling around 20x the throughput capability as compared to a first-generation satellite. With the world\u2019s most advanced phased arrays, the wider bandwidth operations enabled by this spectrum purchase, and optimized 5G protocols, the system will support an overall capacity increase of more than 100x the first-generation SpaceX D2C system. In most environments, this will enable full 5G cellular connectivity with a comparable consumer experience to current terrestrial LTE service, which will be used in partnership with MNOs [mobile network operators] to augment high-capacity terrestrial 5G networks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
SpaceX telling the FCC that its 5G service will be comparable to current LTE service indicates that the firm doesn\u2019t expect to match the big three carriers\u2019 network speeds. \u201cLTE, you know 4G, is not as good as the sorts of data rates we expect today on 5G. On the other hand, it may be as good or better than what you get in remote mountain areas in the US,\u201d Farrar said.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
Mach33, an analyst firm for space industry investors, said that rural and suburban users should be able to get speeds in the tens of megabits per second from Starlink\u2019s next-generation system. The upgrade \u201cshifts DTC from \u2018coverage demo\u2019 to high-speed mobile,\u201d the firm\u2019s analysis said.<\/p>\n
But when indoors, you\u2019ll still want to rely on a fixed broadband service or a stronger cellular connection. Burnett said that if you\u2019re getting 4G speeds outdoors, as SpaceX indicated, \u201cinside you\u2019ll get 2G to 3G speeds. We\u2019re talking about less than one megabit per second, which isn\u2019t really enough to be a replacement for your indoor Internet services, either wireless or wireline.\u201d<\/p>\n
SpaceX could lease spectrum to carriers<\/h2>\n
SpaceX having its own spectrum licenses for mobile service will make it easier to partner with carriers. Instead of leasing spectrum from wireless network operators, SpaceX can offer service on its own spectrum and lease spectrum to carriers. A Wall Street Journal report said that \u201cT-Mobile is in talks to lease some of the spectrum rights that SpaceX plans to acquire.\u201d<\/p>\n
SpaceX could lease its spectrum rights in heavily populated areas to carriers as part of larger deals in which carriers offer Starlink in areas without strong cell service. The AWS-4 spectrum band \u201chas two licenses. There\u2019s a satellite license and a wireless license,\u201d Burnett said. \u201cSpaceX seems mostly interested in the satellite license. It\u2019s possible that they\u2019ll end up leasing the wireless license in certain areas to the mobile carriers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mobile satellite services generally don\u2019t work well in cities because it\u2019s harder to get a line-of-sight link to the sky than in less-populated areas with fewer larger buildings, Burnett said. Leasing wireless licenses to carriers in cities \u201creally would make sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
SpaceX might refuse to lease spectrum to a carrier that doesn\u2019t agree to use its direct-to-device service. \u201cI think it\u2019s all part of a broader negotiation around the agreement, the wholesale agreement for the direct-to-device services,\u201d Burnett said. \u201cDoes Verizon become their partner for those services? If they don\u2019t want to do that, I doubt SpaceX will lease the spectrum to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
SpaceX told the FCC that its purchase of EchoStar spectrum will happen in multiple phases. Upon obtaining initial approval, EchoStar spectrum will be put in a trust \u201cfor the benefit of SpaceX\u2026 The authorizations are expected to remain held in trust for up to two years, with the final closing and assignments to SpaceX expected to occur on or about November 30, 2027, with the possibility of both an accelerated closing and limited extensions,\u201d SpaceX said.<\/p>\n
SpaceX holds spectrum licenses for the Starlink fixed Internet service for homes and businesses. Adding the EchoStar spectrum will make its holdings suitable for mobile service.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpaceX currently holds no terrestrial spectrum authorizations and no license to use spectrum allocated on a primary basis to MSS,\u201d the company\u2019s FCC filing said. \u201cIts only authorization to provide any form of mobile service is an authorization for secondary SCS [Supplemental Coverage from Space] operations in spectrum licensed to T-Mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starlink unlikely to dethrone major carriers<\/h2>\n
SpaceX\u2019s spectrum purchase doesn\u2019t make it likely that Starlink will become a fourth major carrier. Grand claims of that sort are \u201ccomplete nonsense,\u201d wrote industry analyst Dean Bubley. \u201cApart from anything else, there\u2019s one very obvious physical obstacle: walls and roofs,\u201d he wrote. \u201cSpace-based wireless, even if it\u2019s at frequencies supported in normal smartphones, won\u2019t work properly indoors. And uplink from<\/em> devices to satellites will be even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you\u2019re indoors, \u201cthere\u2019s more attenuation of the signal,\u201d resulting in lower data rates, Farrar said. \u201cYou might not even get megabits per second indoors, unless you are going to go onto a home Starlink broadband network,\u201d he said. \u201cYou might only be able to get hundreds of kilobits per second in an obstructed area.\u201d<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
The Mach33 analyst firm is more bullish than others regarding Starlink\u2019s potential cellular capabilities. \u201cWith AWS-4\/H-block and V3 [satellites], Starlink DTC is no longer niche, it\u2019s a path to genuine MNO competition. Watch for retail mobile bundles, handset support, and urban hardware as the signals of that pivot,\u201d the firm said.<\/p>\n
Mach33\u2019s optimism is based in part on the expectation that SpaceX will make more deals. \u201cDTC isn\u2019t just a coverage filler, it\u2019s a springboard. It enables alternative growth routes; M&A, spectrum deals, subleasing capacity in denser markets, or technical solutions like mini-towers that extend Starlink into neighborhoods,\u201d the group\u2019s analysis said.<\/p>\n
The amount of spectrum SpaceX is buying from EchoStar is just a fraction of what the national carriers control. There is \u201cabout 1.1 GHz of licensed spectrum currently allocated to mobile operators,\u201d wireless lobby group CTIA said in a January 2025 report. The group also says the cellular industry has over 432,000 active cell sites around the US.<\/p>\n
What Starlink can offer cellular users \u201cis nothing compared to the capacity of today\u2019s 5G networks,\u201d but it would be useful \u201cin less populated areas or where you cannot get coverage,\u201d Rysavy said.<\/p>\n
Starlink has about 8,500 satellites in orbit. Rysavy estimated in a July 2025 report that about 280 of them are over the United States at any given time. These satellites are mostly providing fixed Internet service in which an antenna is placed outside a building so that people can use Wi-Fi indoors.<\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s FCC filing said the EchoStar spectrum\u2019s mix of terrestrial and satellite frequencies will be ideal for Starlink.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy acquiring EchoStar\u2019s market-access authorization for 2 GHz MSS as well as its terrestrial AWS-4 licenses, SpaceX will be able to deploy a hybrid satellite and terrestrial network, just as the Commission envisioned EchoStar would do,\u201d SpaceX said. \u201cConsistent with the Commission\u2019s finding that potential interference between MSS and terrestrial mobile service can best be managed by enabling a single licensee to control both networks, assignment of the AWS-4 spectrum is critical to enable SpaceX to deploy robust MSS service in this band.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SpaceX\u2019s $17 billion deal to buy spectrum licenses from EchoStar should help Starlink satellites deliver better service to smartphones, and it might give a few large corporations second thoughts about their current partnerships with Starlink competitors. The spectrum, combined with a SpaceX plan to launch up to 15,000 new and improved satellites for cellular service, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4359,575,2619,9526,4360,9527,316,440,1491,4702],"class_list":["post-44114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-apple","tag-ast-spacemobile","tag-att","tag-features-2","tag-globalstar","tag-iphone-2","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-t-mobile","tag-verizon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}