Introduction: T-Mobile has ruled out letting SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile operate as a mobile virtual network operator on its network, with CEO Srini Gopalan saying satellite service is complementary rather than a basis for a broad wholesale wireless deal. The stance leaves SpaceX facing a longer road as it pushes into the U.S. telecom market.
SpaceX has made no secret of its plans to become a full U.S. wireless carrier. It recently acquired more spectrum and is reportedly in talks to get access to at least 80,000 cell sites across the country. A quicker route would be an MVNO agreement with an existing network operator, but T-Mobile is not interested.
During T-Mobile’s Q3 earnings call, Gopalan said the company’s approach to MVNOs has not changed. A deal must bring access to a new addressable market, new distribution channels, or new capabilities. Since T-Mobile views satellite connectivity as a complementary product, an MVNO with SpaceX does not tick any of those boxes. It would not help the carrier’s edge AI plans either, as T-Mobile is already building out its 5G standalone network and moving toward 6G.
“I see no room for an MVNO with SpaceX either on the consumer side or on the physical and edge AI side,” Gopalan said.
T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan
Gopalan stressed that a commercial arrangement, such as SpaceX being a T-Mobile customer or the other way around, is still possible. He said he would be “very happy to look at a resale arrangement” for a complementary service, similar to how T-Mobile already handles satellite through T-Satellite, but an MVNO is “a wholly different thing.”
He also downplayed satellite broadband as a threat to T-Mobile’s home internet business. Outside of some deep rural areas, he called satellite “an inferior version of FWA” and noted constraints such as beam size. He added that two-thirds of T-Mobile’s home internet customers are in dense urban areas.
The resistance is not limited to T-Mobile. Verizon CEO Dan Schulman also ruled out an MVNO deal with any satellite provider during his company’s earnings call on Monday. That means SpaceX will likely have to build its terrestrial wireless network without a major carrier MVNO partner.
