SpaceX has sought permission from US regulators to add up to 15,000 more low-orbit satellites dedicated to its “direct-to-cell” Starlink service, accelerating its push beyond early texting trials toward LTE-like data service on ordinary smartphones.
The new ask, which has been filed as the FCC considers T-Mobile’s combination with Sprint, would rely on radio licenses being handed over by EchoStar to SpaceX, along with T-Mobile’s own PCS holdings in the 1.9 GHz band.
- What’s in the FCC filing and the proposed satellite plan
- Spectrum strategy and a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network
- Carrier plans: partner, wholesale or go it alone?
- Technical lift: phones, payloads and orbits
- Competitive context in the direct-to-device market
- What it means for users of satellite-to-phone service
SpaceX says the expanded constellation is supposed to provide nationwide phone coverage for dead zones and also be able to offer top throughput good enough to feel like 4G almost anywhere.
What’s in the FCC filing and the proposed satellite plan
SpaceX is proposing the satellites now in operation for use in a new constellation, arguing more than 55 of them have operated below the 400-kilometer altitude floor established by NASA to mitigate risk of space debris.
The company proposes a low- to very-low Earth orbit design with next-generation satellites flying from about 326 to 335 kilometers above the Earth—closer than the 340-kilometer altitude floor that the FCC previously approved for some Starlink operations under coordination with NASA.
Flying lower reduces the direct path to handsets, cutting down on latency and increasing link budgets for small phone antennas.
The company says the cellular constellation will utilize elements of its existing Starlink ground segment while incorporating new gear designed for mobile spectrum. SpaceX already has over 650 direct-to-cell satellites in orbit and has shown satellite texting, even app-based video calling in areas with sparse coverage. Including EchoStar’s 2 GHz AWS-4 licenses, SpaceX says user-side throughput could jump by as much as 20 times the speeds seen in early elements; they hope to support mainstream messaging, voice, and data connectivity apps.
Spectrum strategy and a hybrid satellite-terrestrial network
For U.S. operations, SpaceX will use T-Mobile’s PCS spectrum in conjunction with 2 GHz AWS-4 airwaves that were bought from EchoStar. The company also hints at the possibility of using terrestrial gear on AWS-4, which would create a hybrid satellite/ground system to add capacity in high-usage regions, while retaining space-based connectivity for rural and remote areas.
Regulatory filings indicate that satellite and terrestrial services will not illuminate the same piece of geography at exactly the same time, acknowledging interference mitigation and coordinated use. Industry observers, including those at TMF Associates, have been operating under the assumption that keeping a terrestrial option on the table also maintains an open opportunity to wholesale or lease capacity to mobile network operators in metropolitan hot zones.
Carrier plans: partner, wholesale or go it alone?
So far, T-Mobile has been the marquee US partner for cellular Starlink. With the EchoStar deal, Boost Mobile would get access too. SpaceX executives have also suggested that they could offer direct-to-cell service as a stand-alone product, which would put the company in more direct competition with traditional carriers, not just complementing them by extending coverage.
One practical difficulty is the readiness of devices. Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, has said that to include the 2 GHz band plan and waveforms envisioned for space-based service would take time for phone chipsets. Gwynne Shotwell, the president of SpaceX, recently said that the company was in talks with handset and silicon vendors to speed up that support. The move adds a further dimension to 3GPP’s non-terrestrial network standards, which are enabling satellite capability via mainstream 5G releases.
Technical lift: phones, payloads and orbits
Hooking unmodified phones up from space is a lot harder than with homemade pizza-box satellite dishes. Smartphones have very small antennas and stringent power budgets, so satellites require extremely sensitive receivers, enormous phased arrays, and dynamic beam shaping to close the link at data rates that are useful. Lower orbits make it easier, but they also shorten the lifetime of satellites and increase replacement rates; hence, fleet scale matters here too, as does launch cadence.
SpaceX’s in-house launch and laser capabilities can help overcome those limitations by reducing per-satellite deployment costs and directing traffic around the constellation to a ground station that is not full. The company has informed regulators that it is committed to working with NASA to avoid undue risk to crewed missions and to comply with debris-mitigation rules, commitments both critical as satellite counts mount.
Competitive context in the direct-to-device market
The 15,000-satellite plan lands alongside an earlier filing for almost 30,000 satellites for its fixed broadband service and marks a two-track approach: one network optimized for dishes and gigabit-class home service (including in the developing world), another tailored to phones and mobility. Rivals are moving, too. AST SpaceMobile has already completed 5G voice and data calls with AT&T using big satellites, while Apple’s partner Globalstar has enabled emergency messaging on the iPhone with plans to offer much more in the way of data.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is designed to cater to consumer broadband, and traditional geostationary players like Hughes and Viasat are shifting toward hybrids. Nonetheless, executives throughout the sector have conceded that SpaceX has a huge cost and deployment advantage that could become more decisive once direct-to-device moves from demos to mass-market products.
What it means for users of satellite-to-phone service
If allowed and implemented, common phones on remote highways and in national parks could see satellite coverage, as would maritime routes or disaster zones where macro towers make no economic sense or have been damaged. The initial service has focused on messaging; with the extra spectrum and new satellites, video calls, maps, and some basic cloud apps become viable in more places, but signal conditions also matter a lot for peak speeds and delay.
Pricing, data policies, and roaming terms will depend on SpaceX’s carrier strategy: whether it sticks to partnerships, wholesales capacity, or markets a standalone plan. In the meantime, the bottom line is scale: a purpose-built very-low-orbit fleet in licensed mobile spectrum is SpaceX’s stake to move direct-to-cell from a neat demo to an actual mass-market network.
Sources:
- FCC public filings
- Statements by SpaceX executives
- NASA coordination letters
- 3GPP non-terrestrial network specifications
- Industry analysis from TMF Associates