SpaceX wants to reach 80,000 mobile base stations in the US

Bloomberg quoted sources familiar with the situation as saying that SpaceX is negotiating with many telecommunications infrastructure businesses, including Crown Castle, one of the companies that owns the most mobile base stations in the US.

According to Reuters, this is the next step in the plan to turn SpaceX into the fourth mobile network capable of covering the entire United States.

Data from the American Wireless Infrastructure Association shows that the country will have 158,500 mobile base stations operating in 2025, meaning SpaceX is aiming to reach half of this number. Crown Castle operates about 40,000 stations, while American Tower and Vertical Bridge own 42,000 and 18,000 stations, respectively.

CEO Christian Hillabrant previously said Crown Castle was in dialogue with "all parties" when asked about a potential deal with SpaceX and Amazon, but did not elaborate.

SpaceX has not commented on the information.

Investment management firm TD Cowen estimates that a nationwide mobile network would cost more than $80 billion to deploy, take years to build and could require billions of additional dollars.

WSJ said in early October that SpaceX had signed an agreement with investment company Grain Management, in which Elon Musk's company will spend $8 billion in cash to buy a license to use the 800 MHz band.

The 800 MHz band in the US is optimized for services using telecommunications broadcasting stations, instead of satellites. The deal could serve SpaceX's ambition to expand the operations of the Starlink satellite network, not only providing high-speed Internet but also entering the mobile market to compete with longtime carriers such as AT&T and Verizon.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has also approved SpaceX's plan to deploy 15,000 satellites for telecommunications services. The company said it will merge its growing satellite network with "advanced terrestrial assets" to connect devices. The new band will allow coverage to reach places that satellite signals cannot reach, such as inside buildings.

SpaceX has been providing basic wireless service in remote areas in the US through a partnership agreement with T-Mobile for more than a year. However, the company has upgraded the Starlink Mobile network by deploying new satellites, capable of processing more data.

Musk's company last year began targeting the mobile telecommunications market when it reached a nearly $17 billion deal to buy the rights to use satellite spectrum from EchoStar. The deal allows the company to have a platform to transmit data from satellites to mobile phones using its own frequency band, instead of going through T-Mobile's licensing agreement.

EchoStar then also agreed to sell some terrestrial mobile network licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion.