5G carriers fight FCC satellite-to-phone plan seen as aiding SpaceX

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, the three largest mobile carriers in the United States, have jointly objected to key parts of a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plan to widen satellite-to-phone service, a move reported as potentially helping SpaceX's Starlink Mobile. The carriers filed their objections through CTIA, the US wireless industry association, ahead of the FCC's open meeting on 29 October 2026, where the draft rules are due to be considered. The 5G operators' central demand is that two mid-band frequency ranges they use for their own networks be removed from the plan.

Spectrum is the range of radio frequencies that carries mobile calls and data. It is limited, governments license it, and companies pay large sums for exclusive rights to parts of it. Frequencies are measured in hertz; MHz (megahertz) describes how wide a slice is, and GHz (gigahertz) tells where on the radio dial it sits. A wider slice can carry more data, which is why the size of the FCC's plan, and the 290 MHz the carriers want cut, matters to every company involved.

Supplemental Coverage from Space is the FCC's name for "direct-to-device" service, where a satellite in orbit talks straight to a normal smartphone instead of through a ground tower. Its main use so far has been filling gaps: texting or emergency messages in remote areas, at sea or after disasters when towers are down. Expanding the frequencies that satellites can use would allow more capacity and, potentially, fuller services such as data, turning satellite operators into closer rivals of the traditional carriers.

The carriers' stated concern is interference. Signals beamed from space over wide areas could, they argue, disrupt the 5G service they provide on the same or neighbouring frequencies. Their other requests go further: by opposing looser sharing rules and asking for performance obligations, they want satellite newcomers to meet standards similar to those the carriers themselves must meet. Some reports frame the plan as favouring SpaceX, whose Starlink Mobile service is the most prominent direct-to-cell effort, but that is an interpretation of the draft rather than a decision; SpaceX had not publicly responded to the filing in the reports reviewed. The picture is also mixed because T-Mobile already sells satellite texting through a partnership with SpaceX, so its objection is about how expansion is written, not satellite service itself.

For start-ups and policy watchers, the case shows how regulation decides who can scale. A satellite operator cannot offer a phone service without the right to use spectrum, and incumbents with licences have strong reasons to defend them. Similar questions about sharing frequencies between satellites and ground networks are being debated by regulators in other countries as direct-to-device services spread.

Short-term: The FCC's five-member commission can adopt the draft as written, change it to meet some of the carriers' concerns, or delay. If the two bands are dropped, the spectrum available for satellite-to-phone service under the plan would fall from 482 MHz to 192 MHz, according to an analysis of the filing.

Long-term: The final rules will shape how quickly direct-to-device satellite services can grow beyond emergency texting into everyday data, and whether satellite operators become full competitors to mobile carriers. They may also set a reference point for regulators elsewhere.

Who is affected: US mobile carriers and their customers, satellite operators such as SpaceX, phone users in rural or remote areas who could gain coverage, and equipment makers building satellite-ready phones.

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