SpaceX inks $17B deal to buy EchoStar's spectrum for Starlink's direct-to-phone service

SpaceX has announced a huge new $17 billion deal to secure radio spectrum from Boost Mobile's parent company, EchoStar, which will use the newly acquired S-band spectrum for its Starlink direct-to-cell satellite technology.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell explains: "We're so pleased to be doing this transaction with EchoStar as it will advance our mission to end mobile dead zones around the world". EchoStar said in a recent SEC filing that it's selling an aggregate of 50MHz in spectrum, ranging between 1.9GHz and 2GHz bands, which SpaceX has been after access to deliver satellite internet to phones.

Right now, Starlink's system has been using T-Mobile's 1.91GHz to 1.995GHz bands to run messaging to phones in dead zones. The new deal allows SpaceX to gain exclusive use of EchoStar's 2000-2020, 2180-2200, 1915-1920, and 1995-2000MHz bands.

SpaceX will use the new spectrum with next-gen Starlink direct-to-cell (DTC) satellites to boost their throughput by "around 20x" which is rather massive.

EchoStar has also abandoned its plans to build a competitor to Starlink's DTC service, where part of the agreement sees EchoStar cancelling a contract to manufacture over 100 satellites with Canadian company MDA. Instead, EchoStar says that Boost Mobile will gain access to the cellular Starlink system.