SpaceX Seeks Access to 80,000 U.S. Cell Sites in Push to Become Fourth National Wireless Carrier
Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is in talks with tower companies, including Crown Castle, to secure at least 80,000 cell sites, a step toward a fourth U.S. wireless carrier. Carrier stocks fell and tower stocks rose on the news.
SpaceX is in talks with cell tower companies to secure access to at least 80,000 sites across the United States, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, a move that would put the company on a path toward building a fourth nationwide wireless carrier.
The talks, described by people familiar with the matter, would give SpaceX the ground-based network it needs to sell mobile service directly to consumers. The company already operates the satellite-based Starlink internet service.
The report names Crown Castle as one of the infrastructure owners approached. Crown Castle chief executive Christian Hillabrant said Wednesday the company was talking to “all parties” when asked about potential deals with SpaceX and Amazon, but declined to discuss specific customers.
Markets reacted quickly. Shares of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile fell between 4.2% and 5% in extended trading on Thursday, according to Reuters, while Crown Castle and American Tower rose on expectations of new leasing demand. On Friday morning, Crown Castle shares were up about 7% in premarket trading, according to MarketWatch.
The move fits a pattern of steps SpaceX has taken in recent weeks. The company recently acquired nationwide low-band spectrum and received Federal Communications Commission approval to launch 15,000 Starlink satellites designed to connect directly to phones. “This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America,” Elon Musk wrote on X on Oct. 8. On an earnings call this week, Musk said: “We will be building out our terrestrial networks so there’s broad-based connectivity anywhere that SpaceX and Starlink are allowed to operate.”
What analysts say about the price tag
Building a nationwide terrestrial network would be expensive and slow. TD Cowen estimated it would cost more than $80 billion and take many years, according to Reuters.
Citi’s telecom team, led by Michael Rollins, called the SpaceX push “net-positive for the tower stocks and net-negative for the telcos,” according to MarketWatch, suggesting lease agreements worth “billions of dollars.” The bank named Crown Castle, SBA Communications, American Tower and EchoStar as buy recommendations on the news.
The scale is large: 80,000 sites would equal about half of the 158,500 purpose-built cell towers operating in the United States last year, according to the Wireless Infrastructure Association. Crown Castle operates about 40,000 U.S. towers, American Tower has about 42,000 U.S. sites, and privately held Vertical Bridge owns about 18,000.
Satellites and towers serve different purposes. Satellite coverage reaches remote areas where towers do not exist, while towers supply coverage inside buildings and in places where satellite signals cannot reach effectively.
A long road to a fourth carrier
Citi analysts estimated it would take three to five years to build out the coverage and possibly a decade to approach a 20% market share, MarketWatch reported.
The talks are not final and could fall apart. SpaceX, Crown Castle and American Tower did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.
Reporting based on coverage by Reuters and MarketWatch.
