SpaceX is spending $17 billion on the spectrum, which promises to help improve cellular Starlink throughput by 20x. EchoStar is also abandoning its plan to build a competitor.
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SpaceX is promising huge upgrades for its cellular Starlink system after reaching a $17 billion deal to acquire radio spectrum from Boost Mobile’s parent company, EchoStar.
On Monday, SpaceX announced that it’s acquiring a block of EchoStar’s „S-Band“ spectrum in the US and its global spectrum licenses. „We’re so pleased to be doing this transaction with EchoStar as it will advance our mission to end mobile dead zones around the world“, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says.
In an SEC filing, EchoStar says it’s selling an aggregate of 50MHz in spectrum, ranging from the 1.9 to 2GHz bands, which SpaceX has long sought to access to deliver satellite internet to phones.
Currently, the company’s cellular Starlink system has been harnessing T-Mobile’s 1.91 to 1.995GHz bands to power messaging to phones in dead zones. Through the deal, SpaceX will also gain exclusive use of EchoStar’s 2000–2020, 2180–2200, 1915–1920, and 1995– 2000MHz bands.
SpaceX plans to use the spectrum with next-generation Starlink Direct to Cell satellites to increase their throughput by „around 20x“, SpaceX wrote in the announcement.
