SpaceX says it has a plan for Starlink Mobile to compete against the big three wireless carriers and take a large number of customers away from them.

SpaceX has so far partnered with traditional mobile carriers to supplement their ground-based networks with Starlink satellite capacity, mainly to ensure coverage from space in dead zones not reached by cell towers. But SpaceX is buying spectrum licenses that would let it offer its own terrestrial service to compete directly against the big carriers, and the firm’s top executives said in yesterday’s earnings call they plan to do just that.

“The spectrum that we purchased from EchoStar does have terrestrial components, so we definitely intend to build out the terrestrial component,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in response to questions on the earnings call. “So you will have not only the capacity from the satellites themselves, but you will have a buildout of the terrestrial, basically the hardware and systems necessary to make a true mobile service exactly what you want it to be.”

Shotwell said that AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile make roughly $600 billion a year combined, “and I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better. We will eliminate dead zones, leveraging the, basically the satellites in orbit. It will be better during any sort of natural disaster.” Describing plans for next-generation Starlink mobile satellites, Shotwell said that SpaceX “will start to fly the satellites next year, and we will start providing service end of next year.”

Starlink plans small base stations instead of big towers

As we’ve written before, there are technical challenges for SpaceX to compete against major carriers instead of merely partnering with them. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have more spectrum than SpaceX, cell towers throughout the US, and long track records of providing nationwide mobile service.