DEVOURED
SpaceX Makes Big Play to Become a Wireless Carrier
SpaceX is spending $8 billion to acquire cellular spectrum, signaling a aggressive push to provide terrestrial mobile coverage via Starlink.
What: SpaceX is acquiring 800-megahertz band spectrum from Grain Management for $8 billion to offer mobile network services beyond traditional satellite-only links.
Why it matters: By moving into terrestrial cellular spectrum, SpaceX aims to solve latency and coverage issues inherent in space-based internet for mobile devices.
Decoder
- Spectrum: The range of radio frequencies used for wireless communication, which must be licensed from government entities to avoid signal interference.
Original article
SpaceX will pay investment firm Grain Management about $8 billion in cash for US cellular spectrum licenses. The licenses will be for the 800-megahertz band, which is tailored for wireless service from cellphone towers rather than satellites. SpaceX says the new spectrum will help cover places satellite links can't reach. SpaceX still needs some terrestrial infrastructure to use the spectrum for mobile coverage.
Explore all 55 articles in today's digest
Fresh dev news, AI-digested daily. Never miss a trend at devoured.fyi