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Elon Musk tries to make Apple and mobile carriers regret choosing Starlink rivals

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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.

“SpaceX currently holds no terrestrial spectrum authorizations and no license to use spectrum allocated on a primary basis to MSS,” the company’s FCC filing said. “Its 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.”

Starlink unlikely to dethrone major carriers

SpaceX’s spectrum purchase doesn’t make it likely that Starlink will become a fourth major carrier. Grand claims of that sort are “complete nonsense,” wrote industry analyst Dean Bubley. “Apart from anything else, there’s one very obvious physical obstacle: walls and roofs,” he wrote. “Space-based wireless, even if it’s at frequencies supported in normal smartphones, won’t work properly indoors. And uplink from devices to satellites will be even worse.”

When you’re indoors, “there’s more attenuation of the signal,” resulting in lower data rates, Farrar said. “You might not even get megabits per second indoors, unless you are going to go onto a home Starlink broadband network,” he said. “You might only be able to get hundreds of kilobits per second in an obstructed area.”

The Mach33 analyst firm is more bullish than others regarding Starlink’s potential cellular capabilities. “With AWS-4/H-block and V3 [satellites], Starlink DTC is no longer niche, it’s a path to genuine MNO competition. Watch for retail mobile bundles, handset support, and urban hardware as the signals of that pivot,” the firm said.

Mach33’s optimism is based in part on the expectation that SpaceX will make more deals. “DTC isn’t just a coverage filler, it’s 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,” the group’s analysis said.

The amount of spectrum SpaceX is buying from EchoStar is just a fraction of what the national carriers control. There is “about 1.1 GHz of licensed spectrum currently allocated to mobile operators,” 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.

What Starlink can offer cellular users “is nothing compared to the capacity of today’s 5G networks,” but it would be useful “in less populated areas or where you cannot get coverage,” Rysavy said.

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.

SpaceX’s FCC filing said the EchoStar spectrum’s mix of terrestrial and satellite frequencies will be ideal for Starlink.

“By acquiring EchoStar’s 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,” SpaceX said. “Consistent with the Commission’s 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.”

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AT&T rebuked over misleading ad for nonexistent satellite phone calling

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Remember 5GE? —

AT&T reluctantly adds disclaimer: “Satellite calling is not currently available.”

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A gloved hand holds a phone while making a call. The screen shows an AT&T logo and the text,

Enlarge / Screenshot from AT&T commercial featuring Ben Stiller making a satellite call to Jordan Spieth.

AT&T has been told to stop running ads that claim the carrier is already offering cellular coverage from space.

AT&T intends to offer Supplemental Coverage from Space (SCS) and has a deal with AST SpaceMobile, a Starlink competitor that plans a smartphone service from low-Earth-orbit satellites. But AST SpaceMobile’s first batch of five satellites isn’t scheduled to launch until September.

T-Mobile was annoyed by AT&T running an ad indicating that its satellite-to-cellular service was already available, and filed a challenge with the advertising industry’s self-regulatory system run by BBB National Programs. The BBB National Advertising Division (NAD) ruled against AT&T last month and the carrier appealed to the National Advertising Review Board (NARB), which has now also ruled against AT&T.

“It was not disputed that AT&T does not currently offer SCS coverage to its cellular customers… Therefore, the NARB panel recommended that AT&T discontinue the claim that SCS service is presently available to consumers or modify the claim to clearly and conspicuously communicate that SCS is not available at this time,” the NARB said in an announcement yesterday.

AT&T, which is also famous for renaming its 4G service “5GE,” reluctantly agreed to comply with the recommendation and released a new version of the satellite-calling commercial with more specific disclaimers. “AT&T supports NARB’s self-regulatory process and will comply with NARB’s decision… However, we respectfully disagree with NARB’s conclusion recommending that the commercial be discontinued or modified,” AT&T said in its statement on the decision.

The challenged advertisement, titled “Epic Bad Golf Day,” features actor Ben Stiller looking for a golf ball in various remote locations.

“The commercial near the end shows Mr. Stiller having finally caught up with his golf ball in a desert wasteland… He then places a cellular phone call to champion golfer Jordan Spieth, shown standing on a golf green, presumably so that Mr. Spieth can offer golfing advice,” the NARB ruling said. “An image in the commercial shows the call from Mr. Stiller to Mr. Spieth connecting through a satellite relay. Another visual shows Mr. Stiller’s phone stating that it is ‘Making satellite connection.'”

AT&T: Commercial shouldn’t be taken literally

AT&T’s appeal “points to a number of fanciful/ludicrous features of the commercial in Mr. Stiller’s golf ball odyssey to argue that reasonable consumers will not receive a message that satellite service is currently available, but will understand that AT&T is burnishing its brand by pointing to technological features currently under development,” the panel wrote.

T-Mobile countered “that the use of humor does not shield an advertiser from its obligation to ensure that claims are truthful and non-misleading,” and the NARB agreed.

“The panel views the humorous/fanciful nature of Mr. Stiller’s antics as a means of attracting the attention of viewers, but also as a means of emphasizing the utility of SCS technology—allowing for calls to be placed from remote locations not currently accessible to mobile service,” the industry self-regulatory group said. “The humor associated with Mr. Stiller’s golf misadventures does not cancel out the consumer communication that SCS service is currently available. In addition, the panel does not accept AT&T’s argument that the panel’s decision (or NAD’s decision being appealed) will interfere with the use of humor in advertising.”

The ad originally included small text that described the depicted satellite call as a “demonstration of evolving technology.” The text was changed this week to say that “satellite calling is not currently available.”

“Even assuming consumers will read [the disclaimer], one reasonable interpretation of ‘evolving technology’ is that the technology is currently available, albeit expected to improve in the future,” the NARB said.

The original version also had text that said, “the future of help is an AT&T satellite call away.” The NARB concluded that this “statement can be interpreted reasonably as stating that ‘future’ technology has now arrived. The next visual reinforces that message, as it shows Mr. Stiller communicating on a cell phone call while in a remote location, and the accompanying visual states ‘connecting changes everything,’ a message addressing the present, not the future.”

In the updated version of the ad, AT&T changed the text to say that “the future of help will be an AT&T satellite call away.”

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Google and AT&T invest in Starlink rival for satellite-to-smartphone service

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Satellite for smartphones —

AST SpaceMobile gets $206.5 million and is partnering with Google and AT&T.

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Illustration of a large, square satellite orbiting the Earth.

Enlarge / Illustration of AST SpaceMobile’s cellular satellite.

AST SpaceMobile

Google, AT&T, and Vodafone are investing $206.5 million in AST SpaceMobile, a Starlink competitor that plans to offer smartphone service from low-Earth-orbit satellites.

This is the first investment in AST SpaceMobile from Google and AT&T, while Vodafone had already put money into the satellite company. AST SpaceMobile announced the funding in a press release on Thursday and announced a $100 million public offering of its stock on the same day.

“Vodafone and AT&T have placed purchase orders for network equipment from AST SpaceMobile to support planned commercial service,” the satellite company said. Google has meanwhile “agreed to collaborate on product development, testing, and implementation plans for SpaceMobile network connectivity on Android and related devices.” AST, which has one very large test satellite in orbit, previously received investments from Rakuten, American Tower, and Bell Canada.

SpaceX subsidiary Starlink has deals with T-Mobile in the US and several carriers in other countries for satellite-to-smartphone service. T-Mobile is expected to offer Starlink-enabled text messaging this year, with voice and data service beginning sometime in 2025.

Though AT&T hadn’t previously invested in AST SpaceMobile, the companies were already working together. AT&T is leasing spectrum in the 700 MHz and 850 MHz bands to AST SpaceMobile. They plan “to provide mobile broadband to unserved and underserved areas covered by the Leased Spectrum,” the companies told the Federal Communications Commission in an application last year.

AST SpaceMobile's BlueWalker 3 test satellite, which is 693 square feet in size.

Enlarge / AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 test satellite, which is 693 square feet in size.

AST SpaceMobile

For hard-to-reach areas

Satellite-to-smartphone technology is generally seen as a supplement to cellular networks in hard-to-reach areas. “Because AST’s technology can focus satellite coverage in discrete portions of licensed areas, it does not need a nationwide swath of terrestrial mobile spectrum that a mobile network operator licensee has left fallow. Rather than displacing terrestrial network facilities nationwide, AST’s coverage will be complementary to AT&T’s extensive terrestrial network coverage,” the companies’ FCC filing said.

In April 2023, the companies announced that they completed the first two-way voice calls using AST SpaceMobile’s test satellite with standard mobile phones. “The first voice call was made from the Midland, Texas area to Rakuten in Japan over AT&T spectrum using a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone,” the announcement said.

In September 2023, AST SpaceMobile said it made “the first-ever 5G connection for voice and data between an everyday, unmodified smartphone and a satellite in space” and that it achieved a download rate of 14Mbps.

Five satellites should launch soon

AST SpaceMobile’s prototype satellite launched from a SpaceX rocket in September 2022. AST’s early plans detailed in 2020 called for 243 satellites overall, and its first five satellites for commercial operations are expected to launch by March 31, 2024. AST is manufacturing the satellites at its Texas facilities.

The prototype satellite delivers data over 5 MHz channels. “For the company’s planned operational satellites, beams are designed to support capacity of up to 40 Mhz, potentially enabling data transmission speeds of up to 120Mbps,” the company said.

An AST description of its satellite says it has “a large surface area of phased-array antennas, which work together to electronically form, steer, and shape wireless communication beams into cells of coverage,” similarly to cell towers on the ground. AST says its BlueWalker 3 test satellite is 693 square feet.

AST said it has “over 40 agreements and understandings with mobile network operators globally, who collectively service over 2 billion subscribers.” Besides Vodafone and AT&T, these “agreements and understandings” are with firms including Rakuten Mobile, Bell Canada, Orange, Telefonica, TIM, MTN, Saudi Telecom Company, Zain KSA, Etisalat, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, Telkomsel, Smart Communications, Globe Telecom, Millicom, Smartfren, Telecom Argentina, Telstra, Africell, and Liberty Latin America.

While Starlink already has over 5,000 satellites delivering home Internet service and plans to launch tens of thousands more, it isn’t too far ahead of AST SpaceMobile in terms of cellular-enabled satellites. SpaceX launched the first six Starlink satellites that can provide cellular transmissions to standard LTE phones a few weeks ago and demonstrated the technology with text messages sent between T-Mobile phones.

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