SpaceX has signalled its intention to build a terrestrial mobile network and compete directly with T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon for US phone customers, rather than simply supplementing existing carrier networks. The plan was outlined by SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and chief executive Elon Musk during the Q&A session of the company's first earnings call, marking a significant escalation of its Starlink Mobile ambitions into a fully-fledged rival mobile service.

The company already runs Starlink Mobile, a direct-to-device service that fills gaps in carrier coverage, but says this will become "100 times better" once it can draw on spectrum bought from EchoStar and next-generation V2 satellites due to launch next year. As SpaceX holds only 65 megahertz of spectrum, far less than the major carriers, Shotwell and Musk described plans to fit cellular base stations onto existing Starlink dish hardware on rooftops, creating a network of small "femtocells" instead of costly traditional towers. Shotwell said she expects to win over "quite a few" customers from the roughly $600 billion US wireless market currently dominated by the Big Three carriers.