SpaceX Eyes 80,000 Cell Sites for Carrier

Bloomberg reports SpaceX is in talks with Crown Castle to access at least 80,000 US cell sites, about half of the roughly 158,500 operational towers. The plan would pair terrestrial towers with its direct-to-cell satellites to compete with Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T.

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SpaceX is moving from satellite-only direct-to-cell service toward a hybrid terrestrial-plus-satellite carrier, using Crown Castle towers alongside the EchoStar 2GHz spectrum bought for $17 billion, newly acquired low-band licenses and FCC approval for 15,000 V2 satellites. Crown Castle's CEO said it is talking to all parties, so tower access may not be exclusive and the talks are not a finalized deal. A tower lease at this scale would add tenancy and revenue for Crown Castle, and could lift rivals such as American Tower and SBA if other satellite players seek similar access. Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T face a vertically integrated challenger with spectrum, satellites and tower footprint, which raises competitive and pricing risk for them. Execution risk remains high because of capital intensity, the build-out timeline and regulatory conditions.