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SpaceX announced an agreement on Thursday to purchase a nationwide spectrum portfolio as it pushes its Starlink service deeper into the U.S. telecommunications market. Shares of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile tumbled in extended trading. The deal involves the acquisition of a spectrum portfolio from Grain Management, which specializes in digital infrastructure, and is subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission. SpaceX said in a statement that it's a "license portfolio of up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band." "This prime low-band spectrum addresses one of the key remaining technical gaps that will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the US," SpaceX said. In a post on X, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called it a "very big deal." Last week, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon formed a joint venture "focused on expanding coverage in underserved areas," via satellite and direct-to-device (D2D) services, and Starlink was notably absent. T-Mobile has also previously removed mention of Starlink from its T-Satellite promotions. SpaceX appears determined to battle telecommunications giants in the U.S., and deliver its own services without them. "This adds fuel to the fire in the battle between SpaceX and the mobile operators," said TMF Associates' Tim Farrar, an industry expert. "But it's still a very limited amount of spectrum and to get reliable building penetration in urban areas SpaceX would have to deploy towers on the ground." The announcement comes a day after the FCC said it would vote on a proposal to auction 25 megahertz of "prime spectrum" to support D2D services from satellites to smart phones. The FCC also said it would vote Oct. 29 on taking public comment on a proposal to make an additional 482MHz of spectrum available for supplemental coverage from space and to modernize FCC rules for D2D services in the licensed spectrum. The two proposals could benefit SpaceX as well as Amazon, which has also moved to build a service with satellite networks. SpaceX, which went public in June in a record IPO and is now valued at over $2 trillion, has relied on Starlink as its cash cow and only profitable business segment to date. The service is available in 205 countries and had 12 million subscribers as of June 30, according to SpaceX's second-quarter report. The connectivity business generated $1.66 billion in operating income in the period on $4.29 billion in revenue. Starlink is the largest global satellite communications network with over 11,000 satellites in orbit. Deutsche Bank analysts, who recommend buying SpaceX stock, estimated in a report this week that Starlink's global subscriber base reached 13.5 million at the end of September, including 4.1 million based in the U.S. In its rocket business, SpaceX has reduced its planned cadence of launches for next year. The company is now looking to make its massive Starship rockets reliable and fully reusable in order to transition away from use of its smaller Falcon rockets. SpaceX is also building a cloud computing business and aims to someday build orbital data centers. For now, its space and artificial intelligence units are losing money. SpaceX didn't immediately respond to a request for further information, including when its new services may come online if approved by regulators. If cleared, the added spectrum will help SpaceX combine satellite and ground-based coverage once it builds out a network of towers. SpaceX shares rose about 2.5% in extended trading after dropping 4% during regular market hours.
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