(Angel Garcia/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
SpaceX has received the regulatory green light to offer US to international telecommunications services, which the company plans to use for Starlink Mobile, its satellite-to-phone service.
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission approved SpaceX’s application to offer international telecommunications, a process that requires a US company to go through regulatory review.
The application specifically mentions using the authority “to support Starlink Mobile service offerings.” Back in May, SpaceX originally filed the application to request “global facilities-based and resale authority.” The application also noted that the company planned on offering “international telecommunications services to all of the destination markets” where dozens of Starlink subsidiaries reside in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa.
Currently, Starlink Mobile is available through T-Mobile as T-Satellite, which can offer connectivity in dead zones, although bandwidth is constrained. However, SpaceX plans on upgrading Starlink Mobile with next-generation satellites that promises to beam 5G service, but from space, enabling users to receive downloads rates up to 150Mbps.
Despite partnering with T-Mobile, SpaceX has also been positioning Starlink Mobile as a future rival to the big three carriers in the US. Last week, the company’s CFO Bret Johnsen said that Starlink Mobile could stand out by both eliminating cellular dead zones and offering global roaming, thanks to the orbiting satellites. A year earlier, SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk himself also mulled Starlink Mobile possibly becoming a global carrier.
But outside the US, SpaceX has been talking up partnerships. On the same day, the company tweeted about its deal with Japanese telecommunications company KDDI to offer “Starlink Mobile V2, saying it’ll offer “100x the data density, and will enable native calls, high-speed apps, streaming and more.”
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Meanwhile, T-Mobile and AT&T have been playing down the threat of Starlink Mobile, arguing the company’s satellites will struggle to offer robust coverage competitive with their own cell towers. However, SpaceX has plans to develop a ground network using small cost-effective radio equipment called femtocells, although industry experts have been dismissive of the approach as well.
About Our Expert
I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.
Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.
I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.
I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.
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