Starlink Gains 65 MHz: What It Means for Satellite Internet Prices

By John Maximus · Published 9 October 2026
Reported from named sources and checked against the publishers linked in this article. Corrections: editorial and corrections policy.

SpaceX has been cleared by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the American telecoms regulator, to absorb 65 MHz of spectrum from EchoStar, the US satellite and pay-TV group behind Dish TV and Boost Mobile, according to a 24/7 Wall St. report published on AOL on 10 September 2026. The approval lands a year after the deal itself: SpaceX’s roughly $17 billion purchase of EchoStar’s wireless spectrum licences, for its Starlink satellite internet network, was announced in Washington on 8 September 2025 and reported by Reuters. The 2025 agreement set the terms; the 2026 clearance is what lets SpaceX put the airwaves to use.

Key facts

• Price: about $17bn, structured as up to $8.5bn in cash and up to $8.5bn in SpaceX stock, plus roughly $2bn to cover interest payments on EchoStar’s debt obligations through late 2027, according to Reuters.
• SpaceX management plans to integrate the 65 MHz “later next year” and to build terrestrial hardware alongside the constellation, 24/7 Wall St. reported.
• Starlink subscribers doubled year over year to 12.0 million as of the second quarter of 2026, with SpaceX connectivity revenue of $4.29bn, up 66% year over year, per the same report.
• More than 8,000 Starlink satellites have been launched since 2020, of which roughly 600 — what SpaceX calls “cell towers in space” — went up for the direct-to-cell network since January 2024, according to Reuters.
• A companion agreement lets EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers access Starlink direct-to-cell service in areas without coverage, Reuters reported.

Why it matters for Starlink users

Reuters reported that the EchoStar licences let SpaceX run Starlink direct-to-cell on frequencies it owns, rather than relying solely on airwaves leased from mobile carriers such as T-Mobile. The purchase also allows SpaceX to start building and deploying upgraded, laser-connected satellites that the company said will expand its cell network’s capacity by “more than 100 times”. SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said the deal would help the company “end mobile dead zones around the world”, according to Reuters.

For customers, then, both reports point to coverage and capacity rather than cost: neither gives a price for direct-to-cell service, a tariff date, or any change to Starlink’s existing satellite internet plans. That matters because, in our own reader poll, what would actually move satellite-to-phone users was price, not coverage — the one variable this deal has so far left unaddressed.

On the day of the 2025 announcement, Reuters reported EchoStar shares surged 19% in early trading while AT&T and T-Mobile fell more than 3% and Verizon more than 2%.

Analysts see pressure on US carriers

Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall used a CNBC segment on 8 September to reframe the SpaceX wireless push, 24/7 Wall St. reported. CNBC has not posted a transcript of that appearance and Cahall’s underlying note is not public, so the material below reflects the outlet’s secondhand account rather than Wells Fargo research we have read. He said: “Telco just facing another competitor, a three player market going to a much smaller fourth player,” arguing the motive is long-term technology rather than the economics of running a fourth US carrier.

• Bull case: a satellite-plus-spectrum network needs less spectrum, fewer towers and less signal projection than a traditional carrier; SpaceX has described “little femtocells” and rooftop Starlink dishes handling terrestrial handoffs, which the report called capital-light next to macro towers.
• Bull case: T-Mobile is the most exposed incumbent, because its Direct-to-Cell partnership loses its differentiation once SpaceX controls its own spectrum; TMUS shares were down 23.18% over the past year.
• Bull case: Verizon’s fixed wireless net additions fell year over year — the report gives the drop as 30.6% in one passage and 31% in another — which the outlet called the first visible mark of satellite broadband encroachment.
• Bear case: AT&T chief executive John Stankey argued his company can get 98% of the traffic without a wholesale satellite partner.
• Bear case: cable is still winning mobile lines the conventional way — Charter’s Spectrum Mobile added 406,000 lines with mobile service revenue up 18.9% year over year to $1.095bn, and Comcast crossed 10 million wireless lines while offloading roughly 90% of traffic onto Wi-Fi.
• Bear case: Cahall named towers and a cable Wi-Fi offload arrangement as potential winners, but if SpaceX routes around US towers with its own rooftop equipment, the leasing bump never arrives. Crown Castle, asked on its second-quarter call, would say only that its sites offer “space, power, backhaul” and that it would welcome satellite operators as tenants; no agreement is signed.

What this does not change outside the US

Both reports deal with EchoStar’s US spectrum and the US wireless market, and neither addresses satellite internet pricing or availability in other countries, where access still turns on national regulators — Starlink still operates without a licence in South Africa, for instance.

Background: the fight over EchoStar’s airwaves

The sale came months after the FCC questioned EchoStar’s use of mobile-satellite service spectrum and raised concerns about whether it was meeting obligations to deploy 5G in the US, Reuters reported. EchoStar said it expects the SpaceX and AT&T transactions to resolve those inquiries, and an FCC spokesperson said the deals hold the potential to supercharge competition and extend new services to millions of Americans.

SpaceX had pressed the FCC to reallocate underused airwaves for satellite-to-phone service, telling the regulator in an April letter that EchoStar’s 2 gigahertz band spectrum “remains ripe for sharing among next-generation satellite systems”, according to Reuters. President Donald Trump had previously prodded EchoStar and FCC chair Brendan Carr to reach an amicable deal. Access to new frequencies remains contested on other fronts too, including the FCC’s separate plan to auction 25 MHz that Starlink and Amazon both want.

Reuters added that deployment of the larger direct-to-cell satellites depends on Starship, SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, with its first operational Starlink missions expected in early 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What businesses does EchoStar keep after selling the spectrum?

According to Reuters, EchoStar continues to operate its satellite television service Dish TV, the streaming platform Sling, the internet service Hughes and its Boost Mobile brand after the sale. Only the wireless spectrum licences moved to SpaceX.

Did AT&T also buy spectrum from EchoStar?

Yes. Reuters reported that in August 2025, the month before the SpaceX agreement, EchoStar sold nationwide wireless spectrum licences to AT&T for $23 billion. AT&T agreed to acquire 50 MHz of nationwide mid-band and low-band spectrum.

How fast is US mobile data use growing?

Industry group CTIA said Americans used a record 132 trillion megabytes of mobile data in 2024, up 35% over the previous record, according to Reuters, which cited the figure as context for SpaceX’s push into 5G connectivity.

Is this the same spectrum the FCC plans to auction?

No. The 65 MHz comes from EchoStar’s existing wireless licences, moving to SpaceX in a private transaction the FCC has now cleared. Neither of the two reports cited here discusses the regulator’s separate auction plans for other airwaves.