--- title: SpaceX Has Agreed to Pay About $28 Billion for Airwaves to Make Starlink Mobile a US Phone Carrier description: The FCC has begun reviewing SpaceX's purchase of T-Mobile's former 800 MHz licenses, which SpaceX says Starlink Mobile needs to become a US phone carrier. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-10T22:25:04.937Z updated: 2026-11-10T22:25:04.956Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/spacex-starlink-mobile-28-billion-airwaves image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-two-workers-repairing-a-cellular-tower-against-a-cloudy-sky--19728113.jpg categories: Business, Science & Tech content_type: News region: United States publication: Sovereign Magazine about: - type: Organization name: SpaceX description: Rocket and satellite company led by Elon Musk. It launches the Falcon and Starship rockets and operates the Starlink satellite network. --- The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday [began its review](https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-1218A1.pdf) of SpaceX's agreement to buy a nationwide block of 800 MHz airwaves that T-Mobile owned until August, with comments and petitions against the deal due by December 1 and responses by December 8. SpaceX agreed on October 8 to buy the licenses from Grain Management, an investment firm that specializes in digital infrastructure. Neither company has disclosed the price, which The Wall Street Journal reported as $8 billion in cash. SpaceX had already agreed to pay EchoStar $19.6 billion in stock and cash for other licenses, according to its own filings, so with the Grain deal it has committed about $28 billion to spectrum since September 2025. SpaceX said when it announced the Grain deal that the licenses address "one of the key remaining technical gaps that will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US". Starlink Mobile connects ordinary smartphones to satellites where there is no cell signal. SpaceX sells it through about 30 mobile operators, with T-Mobile as its US partner, and said in its June prospectus that about 650 satellites reached about 7.4 million devices a month in about 30 countries at the end of March. The company has not said when it will sell a phone service under its own name or what it would charge. ## T-Mobile Sold the 800 MHz Licenses in August and Has a Half Share in Grain's Profit T-Mobile had to sell the licenses under the terms on which the Justice Department cleared its merger with Sprint. It agreed in May 2025 to sell them to Grain, the FCC approved the sale on July 1 this year, and the deal closed on August 10. T-Mobile received $2.9 billion in cash and Grain's 600 MHz licenses, which it valued at $690 million, for a total of $3.6 billion. Grain signed its agreement with SpaceX 59 days after that closing. T-Mobile is entitled to half of any proceeds Grain makes from the licenses beyond its invested capital, certain expenses and a specified return, the carrier said in [its latest quarterly report](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1283699/000128369926000129/tmus-20260930.htm), which adds that it has not recorded a gain from the SpaceX sale. The FCC attached conditions to Grain's purchase so that the spectrum would not go unused. One of them required a competitive process to choose a satellite partner, with the result reported to the FCC by November 5. Grain said its agreement with SpaceX advances the aims of that order. T-Mobile sells Starlink Mobile in the United States under the name T-Satellite. Its shares closed 13.3% lower on October 9, the first trading day after the announcement, while AT&T fell 10.8% and Verizon 10.1%. Shares in the companies that own cell towers rose, Crown Castle by 15.6%, American Tower by 9.3% and SBA Communications by 7.3%. SpaceX gained 1.2%. The week before the Grain deal, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon formed a joint venture to extend coverage in underserved areas by satellite. Amazon, which agreed in April to [buy Globalstar](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/globalstar-hibleo4-satellites-iphone-emergency-sos), and AST SpaceMobile, which is working with AT&T and Verizon, are building satellite-to-phone services of their own. ## SpaceX Is Due to Take Ownership of EchoStar's $19.6 Billion of Licenses in Late 2027 EchoStar agreed in September 2025 to sell SpaceX its AWS-4 and H-block licenses for about $17 billion, split between up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock. Two months later it added its unpaired AWS-3 licenses for about $2.6 billion in stock. SpaceX puts the total at about $19.6 billion in its quarterly report for the three months to September 30, made up of about $11.1 billion in shares and up to $8.5 billion to pay off EchoStar debt, with any shortfall paid in cash. The FCC approved the transfer on May 12 and EchoStar moved the licenses into a trust on May 22. SpaceX pays, and takes ownership, at a final closing that both companies expect around November 30, 2027. SpaceX, which [listed its shares in June](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/spacex-cursor-share-count-pricing-window), says it will fund the cash owed to EchoStar from cash on hand or other financing. SpaceX is buying 65 megahertz of US spectrum from EchoStar, which it plans to use from a new generation of Starlink Mobile satellites. Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president, said when the first deal was signed that those satellites "will have a step change in performance", and the FCC has since authorized 15,000 of them. ## SpaceX Would Have to Build a Ground Network on the 800 MHz Band by 2029 > "This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America." > — Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, on X Signals at 800 MHz travel farther and pass through walls more easily than the higher frequencies SpaceX is buying from EchoStar. SpaceX says the band will give Starlink Mobile a coverage layer whose signal gets through obstacles such as walls, and that most phones already in use support it. The Grain portfolio is 546 paired licenses with up to 14 megahertz in each area, across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, covering about 100% of the population. SpaceX has told the FCC it will use them from the ground as well as from orbit, with radios and antennas on towers, rooftops and other structures. A separate application to use the band from its satellites, filed on October 27, is still pending. If the FCC approves the transfer, the conditions it set for Grain in July would apply to SpaceX. SpaceX would have to cover at least 33% of each license's population or 25% of its area with a ground network by July 1, 2029, and 66% of the population or 50% of the area by July 1, 2034. The FCC cancels automatically any license that has not met the final target. SpaceX has told investors it expects the purchase to close in the first half of 2027. Analysts at New Street Research wrote that they expect approval to be "fairly straightforward", though SpaceX "will need to give evidence of its planned deployment". ## Starlink Mobile Would Have 14 Megahertz of Low-Band Spectrum, Against Up to 110 at AT&T **Chart: SpaceX would hold far less low-band spectrum than the three big carriers** Most spectrum below 1 GHz counted for each company in any one market, in megahertz. More spectrum carries more traffic. | Company | Megahertz below 1 GHz | | --- | --- | | AT&T | 110 MHz | | T-Mobile | 74 MHz | | Verizon | 72 MHz | | SpaceX | 14 MHz | The SpaceX figure assumes the Grain purchase is approved. Each figure comes from a separate FCC review. Source: FCC orders DA 26-470, DA 26-486 and DA 26-653 and public notice DA 26-1218, May to November 2026 (https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-1218A1.pdf) In reviews of other deals this year, the FCC counted as much as 110 megahertz below 1 GHz for AT&T in a single market, 74 for T-Mobile and 72 for Verizon. SpaceX would have 14 at most. Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, wrote the day after the deal that SpaceX "is still far from having the assets needed to offer a service that would be competitive with the services offered by the Big Three carriers". In his view its only route is an agreement to sell service over one of their networks, known in the industry as an MVNO. Srini Gopalan, T-Mobile's chief executive, told analysts on October 28 that he saw "no room for an MVNO with SpaceX" and called satellite "a complementary product". Tim Farrar of TMF Associates called it "a very limited amount of spectrum" and said SpaceX "would have to deploy towers on the ground" to get reliable coverage inside buildings in cities. Walt Piecyk of LightShed Partners doubts the band will be used from satellites at all, because low frequencies need very large antennas, and expects it to become "the base layer of a terrestrial network". Kutgun Maral of Evercore ISI, who described the 14 megahertz as "more of a coverage fix than a capacity solution", also called the deal "the clearest signal yet that Starlink Mobile is moving from a wholesale coverage layer for carrier partners toward a credible direct-to-consumer US service". SpaceX plans to pair the 800 MHz band for coverage with the EchoStar spectrum and its new satellites for capacity. It gave no cost for the ground network and no date for the service in the earnings statement that reported the deal to investors. ## FAQ **Q: Will Starlink become a mobile carrier?** SpaceX says that is its aim, and has described the 800 MHz licenses as filling one of the last technical gaps before Starlink Mobile can become a major US mobile carrier. The purchase still needs FCC approval, SpaceX expects it to close in the first half of 2027, and the company has given no launch date for a service sold under its own name. Analysts say it would also need towers on the ground or an agreement to use an existing carrier's network. **Q: Which cell phone carrier has Starlink?** In the United States it is T-Mobile, which sells the service as T-Satellite. SpaceX's prospectus lists about 30 partner operators worldwide, among them One NZ, Optus, Telstra, Rogers, KDDI, Salt, Entel, Kyivstar and Virgin Media O2. **Q: How much will Starlink Mobile cost?** SpaceX has not announced a price. Today customers get the service through their own carrier's plan, and SpaceX earns a share of that revenue.