T-Mobile owner on Elon Musk launching a wireless carrier: ‘Welcome to the party’

is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

The head of T-Mobile’s parent company is casting doubt on SpaceX’s plans to make Starlink Mobile a “major” carrier in the US. During an earnings call on Thursday, Deutsche Telekom CEO Tim Höttges says he takes the Elon Musk-owned company “super serious,” but that it will cost at least $200 billion to pull off:

He [Musk] has now bought 76 megahertz of spectrum. By the way, we have 400. So if you now say he can buy the spectrum prospectively, do your math. These are kind of triple-digit billions which are needed to gain the spectrum position. If he has the money, go for it. Then he has to build a network. I can tell you, we have 85,000 towers. No, he can rent towers, no question. But this is another $20 to $30 billion which are required.

Put antennas on it. You can buy antennas… and you can get [them] maybe even in a cheaper way, or you construct it in a new way, but you need money for that. So therefore, my assessment is that SpaceX at least — if they want to play in that industry — needs at least minimum $200 billion. But even beyond that, to play in an industry which we have, let’s say, professionalized over the last 20 years — okay, welcome to the party.

Last month, SpaceX laid out its plans for Starlink Mobile to compete against T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon by using a combination of direct-to-cell satellites and a terrestrial network. One recent report suggests that SpaceX could tap into 80,000 cell towers throughout the US, while another indicates that Musk was in talks to acquire Boost Mobile. This week, Qualcomm announced that SpaceX will use its cellular infrastructure technology to support Starlink Mobile’s network buildout.

At the same time, Höttges is aware of the potential threat Starlink Mobile could pose to the mobile industry by creating a “new” type of service.

“He [Musk] has chipsets, he has data centers, he has AI, he has satellites… He will go as well for maybe integrating social media or at least agent models into his service. So he is creating a new way of communication services,” Höttges says. “That is why I’m saying I take that super serious because I was witnessing what happened to the car industry. They were ignoring it for too long, and we have to face the situation. But it’s not a free lunch. And you see that with Tesla as well in the car industry.”

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