T-Mobile's parent company chief says SpaceX would need at least $200 billion to rival US carriers with Starlink Mobile

Tim Höttges, chief executive of German telecom group Deutsche Telekom, which owns the US wireless carrier T-Mobile, has questioned whether Elon Musk's SpaceX can become a major mobile carrier in the United States. He spoke on Thursday during an earnings call. Höttges said he takes Starlink Mobile "super serious", but argued that building such a business would cost at least $200 billion.

Spectrum and tower costs

Höttges said Musk has so far acquired 76 megahertz of spectrum, while T-Mobile holds 400. If SpaceX wanted to buy more spectrum in the future, he suggested, the sums would run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. A network would also have to be built: T-Mobile has 85,000 towers, and SpaceX could rent towers instead, but he estimated that would add another $20 to $30 billion. Antennas would be an additional expense.

Background

Last month, SpaceX outlined plans for Starlink Mobile to compete with T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon by combining direct-to-cell satellite service with a terrestrial network. One report suggested SpaceX could use 80,000 cell towers across the US, while another said Musk had been in talks to acquire Boost Mobile. This week, Qualcomm announced that SpaceX will use its cellular infrastructure technology to support the buildout of Starlink Mobile's network.

A possible threat to the industry

Höttges also acknowledged that Starlink Mobile could create a new kind of communications service. He noted that Musk has chipsets, data centers, AI and satellites, and may integrate social media or agent models into the service. He compared the situation with the car industry, which he said ignored newcomers for too long, but added that it is not a free lunch, as Tesla's example also shows.