Europe’s Biggest Telecoms Plan to Take on Starlink
Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone signed an Oct. 19 letter of intent to explore a joint bid for European Mobile Satellite Services spectrum and Direct-to-Device.
Image: Starlink
Europe’s four biggest mobile carriers just lined up a joint bid for the satellite spectrum that lets phones talk to space, the same band Starlink needs for Starlink Mobile in Europe.
That’s according to a Telefónica press release dated October 19, matched by Deutsche Telekom, Orange and Vodafone. The four signed a letter of intent to explore a potential joint bid for future Mobile Satellite Services spectrum in Europe and to push Direct-to-Device service on ordinary phones.
They frame it as European sovereignty and network resilience. The plan would give every mobile operator open, non-discriminatory access to offer satellite-to-phone service, cut market fragmentation, and put ground network gear plus coordination and monitoring functions in Europe. The carriers say they will not buy their own constellation. A satellite partner still has to be picked.
The letter also says the bid does not replace existing satellite partnerships. That matters because Deutsche Telekom already has a planned Starlink satellite-to-mobile deal aimed at 2028, and Starlink Mobile is already expanding in Europe through other carrier deals.
The spectrum fight is the same 2 GHz mobile-satellite band that sat at the center of last week’s story, when the U.S. warned the EU against curbing Starlink as Brussels sketches rules that would reserve most of the band for European operators after 2027. SpaceX has been building Starlink Mobile around that band, with next-gen satellites and partner rollouts already underway.
Nothing in Monday’s letter names Starlink or SpaceX, and nothing is awarded yet. It is an intent to explore a joint bid, not a license win, and the satellite partner is still blank. What is clear is that Europe’s largest carriers want a seat at the table for the same Direct-to-Device spectrum race Starlink is already flying into.
If the carriers land the spectrum with a non-Starlink partner, does Deutsche Telekom keep both tracks, or does Europe’s MSS map get redrawn?
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[…] Europe’s four largest mobile operators — Deutsche Telekom of Germany, France’s Orange, Spain’s Telefónica and UK-headquartered Vodafone — have signed a letter of intent to explore a joint bid for future Mobile Satellite Services spectrum in Europe: the band that lets an ordinary phone reach a satellite with no dish and no new hardware. The commitment was announced on 19 October in a Telefónica statement matched by the other three carriers, and picked up by Tesla North. […]
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