SpaceX buys wireless spectrum from EchoStar in $17 billion deal

Reuters ^ | September 8, 2025 | David Shepardson and Joey Roulette

[SunkenCiv]

Elon Musk's SpaceX said Monday it will buy wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar (SATS.O), opens new tab for its Starlink satellite network for about $17 billion, a major deal crucial to expanding Starlink's nascent 5G connectivity business.

The companies also agreed to a deal that will enable EchoStar's Boost Mobile subscribers to access Starlink direct-to-cell service to extend satellite service to areas without service.

The spectrum purchase allows SpaceX to start building and deploying upgraded, laser-connected satellites that the company said will expand the cell network's capacity by "more than 100 times."

...The push comes amid fast-rising wireless usage. In 2024, Americans used a record 132 trillion megabytes of mobile data, up 35% over the prior all-time record, industry group CTIA said Monday.

SpaceX has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites since 2020, building a distributed network in low-Earth orbit which has seen demand from militaries, transportation firms and consumers in rural areas.

Roughly 600 of those satellites - which SpaceX calls "cell towers in space" - have been launched since January 2024 for the company's direct-to-cell network, orbiting closer to Earth than the rest of the constellation...

The company in August sold some nationwide wireless spectrum licenses to AT&T for $23 billion. AT&T agreed to acquire 50 MHz of nationwide mid-band and low-band spectrum.

President Donald Trump previously prodded EchoStar and FCC Chair Brendan Carr to reach an amicable deal for the company's wireless spectrum licenses.

[Albion Wilde]

There is a "Dirksen Congressional Center" online that claims to have access to his papers, and they can't find absolute confirmation that he said it as quoted; but they did confirm that he said "billion" in similar contexts. Here is a relevant passage from their website:

The chief evidence in support of Dirksen making the statement comes from people who claim to have heard him. The Library of Congress, for example, cites someone's personal observation on the campaign trail as evidence. The Dirksen Center has received calls from people who heard Dirksen say those words, some even providing the date of the event. But cross-checking that information with the records has, so far, turned up nothing in the way of confirmation.

The closest documented statement came at a joint Senate-House Republican leadership press conference on March 8, 1962, when Dirksen said, "The favorite sum of money is $1 billion – a billion a year for a fatter federal payroll, a billion here, a billion there." [EMD Papers, Republican Congressional Leadership File, f. 25] But the "and pretty soon you're talking real money" is missing....

Of course, the Dirksen Papers do not document completely the late Senator's comments....

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, that’s some admirable ‘second mile’ work there.

[Albion Wilde]

It is shocking how long the government has been helping itself to "billions." Now our debt is in the trillions, and it's nearly inconceivable to most.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, that’s a shame.

[SunkenCiv]

• Msg #71: US in real danger of losing the moon race to China, experts tell Senate [09/04/2025]