SpaceX Just Bought the Missing Piece Starlink Needs to Become a Real U.S. Carrier

SpaceX’s render comparing V1 and V2 Starlink Mobile satellite beams. Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX has agreed to buy a nationwide block of 800 MHz low-band spectrum from investment firm Grain Management, a deal it says will let Starlink Mobile operate as a full mobile carrier in the U.S. rather than a satellite add-on.

The portfolio covers up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum, and Grain says SpaceX is buying 100% of it. SpaceX announced the agreement on X at 1:19 p.m. PT on Thursday, saying it will “pave the way for @Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the US.” Neither company disclosed a price.

Low-band spectrum is the part Starlink Mobile has been missing. In its official update, SpaceX says its global 2 GHz mid-band spectrum will carry high-bandwidth capacity, while the 800 MHz layer pushes the signal “through obstacles, such as walls,” so phones keep service inside buildings. SpaceX adds that most existing phones already support the band.

Once the FCC signs off, the bigger change happens on the ground, where SpaceX plans to pair its satellites with an “advanced terrestrial deployment.” Its filing with the FCC describes standards-based radios feeding sectorized antennas on towers, rooftops and other structures. SpaceX says that would make Starlink Mobile the first operator to deploy both satellite and terrestrial spectrum: “One network that provides Americans with a reliable service indoors, outdoors, in cellular dead zones, and everywhere in between.”

Elon Musk called the deal “the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America.” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell lumped it in with a second win this week: “Terrestrial low band spectrum acquisition and FCC approval for Starlink Mobile constellation!”

The second win was the FCC’s decision to authorize Starlink Mobile’s Gen2 constellation of 15,000 satellites optimized for 2 GHz spectrum, as we reported Wednesday. SpaceX says its V2 satellites will deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of the current generation to unmodified phones. The FCC also cleared the full Ka, V, E and W backhaul bands for Starlink’s V3 broadband satellites.

Until now, Starlink’s phone service in the U.S. has reached customers through partners, most visibly T-Mobile’s T-Satellite plan. SpaceX’s first big move toward its own airwaves came in 2025, when it agreed to buy AWS-4 and H-block licenses from EchoStar for about $17 billion. The FCC approved that purchase in May, and SpaceX has said its next-generation satellites are designed around that spectrum.

The 800 MHz licenses trace back to T-Mobile’s Sprint merger, which came with a requirement to sell them off. Grain bought the portfolio from T-Mobile in August for cash and its own 600 MHz spectrum, following an FCC order in July. Starlink’s own network would end up running partly on airwaves that T-Mobile, its biggest U.S. partner, once held.

SpaceX hasn’t said when it expects the FCC review to wrap up, how many towers it plans to build or lease, or what Starlink Mobile would cost as a standalone U.S. carrier. It also hasn’t said what the move means for the T-Satellite partnership. The FCC conditions set their own clock, with the first interim build-out benchmark under the satellite path due November 30, 2029.

SpaceX has asked the FCC for expedited approval and promises to “deploy rapidly” once it gets one. If it builds towers anywhere near the pace it launches satellites, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile may not get much of a head start.