SpaceX taps Qualcomm to power Starlink Mobile in challenge to Verizon, AT&T in US wireless market
SpaceX has struck a multiyear deal with chipmaker Qualcomm to develop key network technology for Starlink Mobile, as Elon Musk's company steps up its challenge to established US wireless carriers Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
The partnership will see Qualcomm supply cellular infrastructure technology to help SpaceX build a terrestrial mobile network that complements Starlink's satellite-based services. The rollout is expected to begin next year, Qualcomm said on Wednesday. The companies have not disclosed the financial terms of the agreement.
The deal marks another step in SpaceX's efforts to expand beyond satellite connectivity and build a broader presence in the US mobile market.
Under the agreement, SpaceX will deploy Qualcomm's Dragonwing cellular infrastructure hardware and software in base stations. The technology is intended to provide high-capacity coverage through a network of ground-based mobile sites.
Qualcomm said the terrestrial infrastructure would work alongside Starlink's satellite capabilities, combining conventional cellular coverage with satellite connectivity.
"Together with SpaceX, we are building world-leading cellular infrastructure in the United States, advancing 5G today, with an opportunity to lay the foundation for AI-native 6G in the years ahead," Durga Malladi, an executive vice president at Qualcomm, said in a statement.
SpaceX plans to use the technology to establish tens of thousands of new cell sites. However, the company has not yet identified any cell tower operators it intends to work with or disclosed how many additional towers the network will require.
SpaceX steps up challenge to Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile
The Qualcomm partnership comes as SpaceX accelerates its push into the US wireless market through spectrum acquisitions and industry partnerships.
Last month, the company announced an agreement to acquire a nationwide spectrum portfolio in the 800 MHz band. The announcement put pressure on shares of major US wireless carriers.
Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that SpaceX was in discussions to acquire EchoStar's Boost Mobile wireless business.
These moves could help SpaceX strengthen its position in a market dominated by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. The company has so far faced limitations in expanding its direct-to-device satellite services, particularly in delivering the voice, video and data coverage available through conventional mobile networks.
Starlink has become a major contributor to SpaceX's financial performance. The satellite internet business accounted for 36% of the company's revenue in the third quarter and 85% of its operating profit.
However, expanding into terrestrial mobile infrastructure could help SpaceX address gaps in its existing satellite-based consumer offering and compete more directly with established wireless operators.
Qualcomm brings experience in cellular technology, although its business has traditionally been better known for smartphone modems and radio chips than for equipment used in mobile network base stations. The company began expanding its presence in the 5G infrastructure market in 2020.
SpaceX is among Qualcomm's most prominent partners in this segment, following earlier agreements involving Verizon, Dish and Vodafone.
The latest agreement comes as SpaceX, which went public in June in what was the largest initial public offering on record, commands a valuation approaching $2 trillion.
Sayantani Biswas is an assistant editor at Livemint with seven years of experience covering geopolitics, foreign policy, international relations and global power dynamics. She reports on Indian and international politics, including elections worldwide, and specialises in historically grounded analysis of contemporary conflicts and state decisions. She joined Mint in 2021, after covering politics at publications including The Telegraph. <br> She holds an MPhil in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University (2019), with a specialisation in postcolonial Latin American literature. Her research examined economic nationalism through Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. She also writes on political language, cultural memory and the long shadows of conflict. <br> Biswas grew up in Durgapur, an industrial town in West Bengal shaped by migration, which drew families from across India to the Durgapur Steel Plant. As the only child in a joint family, she spent years listening—almost obsessively—to her grandparents’ testimonies of struggle, fear and loss as they fled Bangladesh during the Partition of 1947. This formative exposure to lived historical memory later converged with her training in Comparative Literature, equipping her to analyse socio-economic structures and their reverberations. <br> Outside the newsroom, she gravitates towards cultural history and critical theory, returning often to texts such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. As a journalist, she is committed to accuracy, intellectual rigour and fairness, and believes political reporting demands not only clarity and speed, but historical depth, contextual precision, and a disciplined resistance to spectacle.
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