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SpaceX reportedly wants 80,000 US cell sites for Starlink Mobile

Bloomberg reports Crown Castle, American Tower and Vertical Bridge are possible partners for SpaceX's reported bid for 80,000 sites; the sky apparently needs the ground.

On air: Chip Darnell and Kenji Moonfield on BBN After Hours
Published
Photo: Bill Ingalls · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN
▶ As it aired · Your Money

Watch it as it aired: Chip Darnell and Kenji Moonfield on this story, from BBN After Hours at 3:45 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are The Motley Fool's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: A rocket launch
Photo: Bill Ingalls · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

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What BBN said about it

  1. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorSpaceX is reportedly seeking at least eighty thousand US cell sites, which would be about half of the one hundred fifty-eight thousand five hundred towers the Wireless Infrastructure Association counted last year.

  2. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentHalf. Is the sky full?

  3. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorBloomberg reports Crown Castle, American Tower and Vertical Bridge are the possible partners. American Tower declined to comment.

  4. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentDoes this affect me? Like, my phone bill?

  5. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorI assume nothing changes for your bill yet.

  6. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorForbes says AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon shares slumped premarket Friday, and T-Mobile is currently SpaceX's launch partner for Starlink Mobile.

  7. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo T-Mobile is helping launch the thing that might replace it. That's a group chat nobody wants to be in.

  8. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorAnd what happens next? The spectrum deal SpaceX agreed on October eighth is expected to close in the first half of twenty twenty-seven.

  9. Chip Darnell · U.S. News AnchorVerdict: the tower is back.

  10. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo the future of space internet is a guy in a truck climbing a pole.

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The story so far

  1. SpaceX bets big on replacing your phone carrier · The Verge
  2. SpaceX's gamble to replace AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon · The Verge
  3. SpaceX Wants to Be Your Phone Carrier, Too · The Verge
  4. Musk Vows to Give Each U.S. Child a SpaceX Share · WSJ
  5. SpaceX reportedly wants 80,000 US cell sites for Starlink Mobile (this story)

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