Verizon Communications used its third-quarter earnings call on Monday to shut the door on one specific form of cooperation with SpaceX’s Starlink: access to Verizon’s own mobile network. Chief executive Dan Schulman said he sees “absolutely no benefit whatsoever to extending an MVNO deal to any satellite provider,” while leaving room to work with satellite operators in remote areas, Yahoo Finance reported on 28 October 2026, carrying a summary from Benzinga.
Key facts
- Schulman said there is a role for satellite in remote areas, and that Verizon could work with satellite providers directly or through its joint venture to offer a complementary service.
- Matching an established carrier, he said, would require SpaceX to build 65,000 to 80,000 macro sites, plus backhaul, radio access equipment and significant spectrum.
- He put that buildout at a minimum of four to six years and $300 billion to $500 billion spread over seven to eight years.
- Verizon reported adjusted earnings of $1.31 per share against expectations of $1.27, on revenue of $34.31 billion versus a $34.74 billion consensus.
- Schulman said there are no “backdoors” in Verizon’s existing MVNO agreements. Benzinga’s summary does not name which agreements, or which wholesale customers, he had in mind.
What Verizon ruled out
The refusal is narrow. An MVNO sells wireless service over another carrier’s network instead of relying on infrastructure it owns, and Schulman said Verizon has no plans to grant satellite providers that kind of access. If SpaceX enters the market as a rival, he told the call, the company would “punch back” hard.
The “no backdoors” assurance is harder to test. Neither Schulman’s remark nor the Benzinga summary identifies the wholesale partners whose contracts he was vouching for, and the commercial terms of carrier MVNO agreements are not public. The claim therefore stands as an assertion about documents no reader can inspect.
The cost of going it alone
Most of Schulman’s case rested on physical plant rather than on doubt about SpaceX. Tens of thousands of macro cell sites are only the start; he also listed backhaul links, radio access equipment and spectrum holdings as prerequisites, the report notes. Those are the same time and money estimates behind the buildout Verizon says a mobile rival would need.
Musk has put the timeline much lower, as Starlink News has reported, so the two sides are not arguing over the same clock, let alone the same budget.
Why it matters
Satellite-to-phone service depends on how satellite operators and mobile carriers choose to deal with each other. Schulman’s framing puts satellite connectivity in a supporting role — a complement to cellular networks where coverage is thin — rather than as a product a satellite operator sells in its own right. That sets Verizon alongside carriers elsewhere that expect to route satellite phone service through existing carriers rather than sell it direct, while explicitly ruling out the wholesale arrangement that would let a satellite provider compete for Verizon’s own subscribers.
What SpaceX has said
Nothing, so far. Benzinga’s summary carries no comment from SpaceX or Starlink, and Starlink News has seen no public response from the company to the MVNO refusal. SpaceX has not said publicly that it asked Verizon for wholesale access, and Schulman described no negotiation with it — the exchange, as reported, is one executive’s answer to analysts rather than a collapsed deal.
The quarter behind the remarks
The results beat on earnings and missed on revenue. Verizon posted its strongest third-quarter wireless subscriber growth in five years and raised its full-year outlook, Benzinga writes, yet the shares closed lower on Monday before edging up in after-hours trading.
Those numbers reach this account second-hand. The Benzinga summary links neither Verizon’s own earnings release nor the quarterly filing that carries the audited detail; both are published through the company’s investor relations site, and readers who need the primary figures should go there rather than rely on a third-party write-up. Benzinga also discloses that its article was partially produced with AI tools and reviewed by its editors before publication.
Background
Starlink is the satellite internet service operated by Space Exploration Technologies Corp, better known as SpaceX. The exchange on Verizon’s call concerns the mobile side of that business — service delivered to ordinary handsets — not the fixed satellite broadband dishes Starlink sells to homes and businesses.
Nothing in the report points to a change in Starlink’s existing consumer service. Schulman spoke about Verizon’s US network and its competitive position; he said nothing about Starlink pricing, hardware costs or service availability in Africa or any other market outside the United States, and the MVNO question remains a US carrier matter for now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did Verizon’s revenue miss consensus if subscriber growth was the strongest in five years?
Benzinga attributes the shortfall to fewer customers upgrading their handsets after Verizon cut device subsidies. Subsidy cuts reduce equipment revenue even when the carrier is adding connections, which is why a strong subscriber quarter and a soft top line can arrive together.
Does Verizon expect SpaceX to fail at building a mobile network?
No. Schulman told the earnings call that Verizon takes SpaceX’s ambitions seriously and assumes the company will execute its plans successfully, Benzinga writes. His objection was to the scale of sites, spectrum and capital involved, not to SpaceX’s competence.
How did Verizon shares move around the call?
The stock closed down 3.49% at $43.10 on Monday, then gained 0.29% to $43.23 in after-hours trading, per Benzinga Pro data cited in the report. Benzinga Edge ranks Verizon in the 63rd percentile for Momentum and the 52nd for Quality, with weak price trends over short, medium and long time frames.
Where can the quarterly figures be checked against Verizon itself?
Verizon publishes its earnings release, supplementary financial tables and call materials through its investor relations site, and the audited detail lands in the quarterly 10-Q it files with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Those documents, not a third-party summary, are the record for the $1.31 EPS and $34.31 billion revenue figures.
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