SpaceX has turned into the line item nobody in telecom wrote into the earnings-call script. Elon Musk’s company reported that connectivity revenue, mostly from Starlink, rose 69% to $5.25 billion in the third quarter, according to CNBC’s live coverage of the results. Broadband Breakfast, TIKR.com, Benzinga and TechRadar then ran the same angle: what does a satellite operator with new spectrum and very deep pockets mean for AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile? That question now hangs over SpaceX telecom earnings season.
The honest answer is that the threat sits in the future far more than in this quarter’s subscriber counts. AT&T still reported 769,000 internet additions on October 21, 2026, and Verizon and T-Mobile shares slipped anyway after the news. We covered the tower-leasing side of the story earlier in our report on AT&T falling as SpaceX eyed 80,000 cell sites. This piece pulls the hardware, spectrum and spending numbers together and asks what they add up to.
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Why SpaceX Telecom Earnings Became the Wildcard
Telecom earnings calls usually follow a script. Carriers argue over churn, promotions and fiber passings, then analysts check whether the cable operators are still taking share. This quarter a rocket company walked into that script. SpaceX did not issue a wireless price cut or a new bundle. It posted numbers, signed spectrum deals and let investors do the math on what comes next.
SpaceX’s satellite connectivity service is branded Starlink, and its planned phone-to-satellite offering is referred to as Starlink Mobile. The second name matters more to carrier executives than the first. Starlink as a fixed broadband and rural product competes at the edges of the carriers’ footprints. Starlink Mobile, if it reaches handsets at scale, competes for the core product that pays for their networks.
Beyond that, the timing amplified the effect. AT&T reported its numbers on October 21, in the same news cycle as the SpaceX figures, and every carrier call that followed had to field a SpaceX question. Investors who had treated Starlink as a rural curiosity suddenly had a $17 billion spectrum purchase, a new 800 MHz deal and a profit swing to digest in the same week.
AT&T’s 769,000 Internet Additions in Context
AT&T’s headline figure was 769,000 internet additions, reported on October 21, 2026. By any normal standard that is a healthy quarter. The trouble is that the market no longer judges carriers on normal standards. It judges them against a competitor that gained roughly 1.6 million Starlink subscribers between periods, going from 12 million to 13.6 million.
That comparison deserves a warning label. AT&T’s internet additions and Starlink’s subscriber gain are not measured the same way, and the reporting periods may not line up perfectly. Starlink’s figure compares 13.6 million subscribers with 12 million in the prior period. The pairing still shows why the stock reaction looked harsher than the operating results justified. A carrier adding customers at a steady pace looks different when a rival with satellites adds more in a comparable span.
T-Mobile faced the same read-through. Its own quarter was strong on average revenue per account, as our breakdown of T-Mobile’s $155.73 ARPA and 34% EPS jump shows. Yet Verizon and T-Mobile both saw share-price declines after the telecom earnings news. Good results did not shield them from a story about someone else’s capital.
Starlink’s 13.6 Million Subscribers, by the Numbers
Starlink subscribers reached 13.6 million, up from 12 million in the prior period, per the SpaceX results coverage. That is a gain of 1.6 million, or about 13%. Connectivity revenue, which is mostly Starlink, rose 69% to $5.25 billion in the third quarter. Working backward from that growth rate implies a year-earlier figure near $3.1 billion, though that is our arithmetic and not a number SpaceX published.
Revenue growing five times faster than the subscriber base points to price, mix and enterprise demand doing real work. The reports do not break that out on the fact sheet we relied on, so we avoid guessing at average revenue per user. What the figures do confirm is that Starlink is no longer a science project. A business doing $5.25 billion in a quarter funds a lot of ground stations, user terminals and satellites without borrowing against anything else.
For hardware watchers, the subscriber figure doubles as a unit-volume signal. Every one of those 13.6 million subscribers represents a terminal that someone manufactured, shipped and supports. SpaceX controls that supply chain end to end, which gives it a cost-down loop that terrestrial carriers cannot copy by buying radios from vendors. Our hardware coverage tracks how that vertical integration plays out across chips, terminals and launch cadence.
The $4.4 Billion Profit Swing
SpaceX reported third-quarter net income of $4.4 billion, compared with a $5.5 billion net loss a year earlier. That is a $9.9 billion swing in twelve months. Adjusted earnings came to 45 cents per share, according to IBES calculations. Fortune’s write-up of the quarter put the profit story next to the AI business, which tells you where the money is moving.
Why does a profit figure matter to a telecom analyst? Because profit is what lets a challenger outlast an incumbent’s price response. A loss-making entrant can only stay aggressive until its funding runs thin. A profitable one can stay aggressive as long as it likes. Carriers that planned around a cash-burning Starlink now have to plan around a cash-generating one.
There is a counterpoint. Net income at the company level blends satellite connectivity with AI computing, launch and other units. We cannot say from the confirmed numbers how much of the $4.4 billion Starlink produced. Anyone who tells you the telecom business alone generated that profit is guessing.
Capex Showdown: $19.6 Billion vs $5.1 Billion
The sharpest number in the whole story may be capital spending. SpaceX reported $19.6 billion in third-quarter capex, primarily for AI computing. AT&T reported $5.1 billion for the same quarter. SpaceX therefore spent roughly 3.8 times as much as the carrier whose earnings call it was haunting.
| Metric (Q3 2026) | SpaceX | AT&T |
|---|---|---|
| Capital spending | $19.6 billion | $5.1 billion |
| Main spending driver | Primarily AI computing | Not detailed in the reports reviewed |
| Customer momentum | 13.6 million Starlink subscribers, up from 12 million | 769,000 internet additions |
| Net income | $4.4 billion (vs a $5.5 billion loss a year earlier) | Not covered in the reports reviewed |
| Spectrum moves | EchoStar (about $17 billion), Grain Management 800 MHz | None reported in the sources reviewed |
Read the table carefully. The $19.6 billion is aimed mostly at AI computing, not at towers or radios, so it would be wrong to say SpaceX is outspending AT&T on connectivity. Still, the gap tells you what a combined company can afford. We tied the same capital story to the AI side in our look at SpaceX’s $920 million a month GPU deal. A carrier that must defend its network against a rival with that much spare capacity faces a different kind of competition than it did two years ago.
The Spectrum Stack: EchoStar and Grain Management
Spectrum is the real moat in wireless, and SpaceX is stacking it. The company previously agreed to acquire spectrum licenses from EchoStar, the owner of Boost Mobile, for approximately $17 billion. It has now also agreed to acquire 800 MHz spectrum licenses from Grain Management. That second deal requires Federal Communications Commission approval, according to the reports.
Why does 800 MHz matter? Low-band spectrum travels farther and penetrates buildings better than the mid-band and high-band slices that carriers lean on for speed. A satellite-to-phone service lives or dies on link budgets, and every bit of favorable spectrum helps. This is also why the carriers care about every megahertz the FCC puts on the table. We detailed that fight in our piece on how carriers shield 290 MHz as SpaceX gets a 5 MHz slice.
| Move | Counterparty | Detail | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spectrum licenses | EchoStar (owner of Boost Mobile) | Approximately $17 billion | Agreed previously |
| 800 MHz licenses | Grain Management | Needs FCC approval | Agreed, pending |
| Additional spectrum | Not named | 600 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands | Unconfirmed |
| Cell-tower leases | Crown Castle, American Tower (talks) | 80,000 U.S. sites | Unconfirmed |
| Network scale | Not applicable | 20 million to 40 million subscribers | Unconfirmed |
Starlink Mobile: The Plan Carriers Fear
Starlink Mobile is the planned phone-to-satellite service, and it is the reason the SpaceX telecom earnings story hit carrier stocks and not just space stocks. The three biggest U.S. carriers have already pushed back at the regulatory level, and our summary of how AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile oppose the FCC’s 482 MHz plan shows how seriously they take the spectrum angle.
Two facts shape how worried carriers should be. First, satellite-to-phone service has to beat physics, not just competitors. Handsets have small antennas, and satellites are far away. Second, SpaceX has repeatedly shown it can solve hardware problems that other companies called impractical, from reusable boosters to consumer terminals shipped by the million. Betting against its engineering has a poor record, and betting on a quick timeline has an equally poor one.
For consumers the near-term effect is modest. Coverage in dead zones is the pitch, not replacing a primary carrier. For carriers the long-term effect is about pricing power. If a phone can fall back on satellite for basic connectivity anywhere, the premium customers pay for rural coverage erodes. That is the scenario analysts are quietly pricing into carrier multiples.
What the Carriers Say: Five Executive Quotes
Carrier executives have not stayed quiet. Their public positions range from dismissive to respectful, and the contrast with Musk’s own framing is useful. T-Mobile US Chief Financial Officer Pete Osvaldik argued the physics case, as quoted by Yahoo Finance: “You can have a million satellites up there with all the spectrum in the world,” he said, and the point of the sentence is that physics still sets the limits.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman took a similar line during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, according to the same Yahoo Finance report. His words: “It is very difficult for satellite providers to provide a service that’s even close to what we can provide with our broadband services.” We examined his stance on a Starlink wholesale deal in our report that Verizon rules out a Starlink MVNO.
Musk answered from the other side. Yahoo Finance quoted the SpaceX chief executive saying: “They don’t understand that SpaceX is developing entirely new pieces that fundamentally alter the strategic landscape.” AT&T CEO John Stankey, in remarks carried by 24/7 Wall St., defended his company: “Our competitors cannot and will not match our operating proficiency, network performance, or exceptional converged value proposition.”
Stankey also conceded ground in the same coverage, according to 24/7 Wall St. He said: “I think LEO constellations are fantastic for delivering bandwidth to rural areas.” That sentence may be the most revealing of the five. It accepts Starlink’s strength in rural broadband while holding the line on mobile. Whether that line holds once Starlink Mobile ships is the open question.
The Unconfirmed Layer: Towers and Subscriber Targets
Several of the most dramatic claims in circulation remain unconfirmed, and readers should treat them that way. One report says SpaceX plans to lease space on 80,000 U.S. cell-tower sites. A second says it is in talks with Crown Castle and American Tower about those sites. A third says SpaceX could assemble a network serving 20 million to 40 million subscribers. Another says it will pursue additional spectrum in the 600 MHz and 3.5 GHz bands. No company has confirmed any of the four.
Why do these claims move markets anyway? Because they fit the pattern SpaceX has already established. Buying EchoStar spectrum and Grain’s 800 MHz licenses suggests the company wants terrestrial-grade assets, not only orbital ones. Tower access would complete that picture, since a hybrid network needs ground sites to anchor coverage in cities where satellites struggle.
The sensible reading: treat the tower talks as a hypothesis to test against the next filings. If Crown Castle or American Tower disclose a major new tenant, the story shifts from rumor to fact. Until then, the confirmed record is the spectrum and the earnings, and the rest is reporting.
Historical Context: Why Challengers Usually Stall
U.S. wireless has seen waves of challengers. Cable operators entered by renting capacity from incumbents. Virtual carriers chased budget users. EchoStar, through Boost Mobile, tried to build its own presence. Most of these efforts ran into the same wall: the incumbents owned the best spectrum and the densest tower grids, and they could respond to any price move.
SpaceX differs on the two inputs that usually decide these contests. It brings its own radio infrastructure in orbit, and it is buying the spectrum that sits behind it. Launch cost is a large part of that edge, a point we explored when SpaceX asked for 10,000 launches a year against the FAA’s 195 licensed flights. A challenger that controls its own launch costs can afford a longer fight.
Satellite phone services, by contrast, have historically stayed in niches because of cost and handset limits. That history is the carriers’ best argument. It is also exactly what SpaceX says is changing.
Market Impact: Why Carrier Shares Slipped
Verizon and T-Mobile both experienced share-price declines after the telecom earnings news, and AT&T’s report on October 21 sat at the center of the same week. Yahoo Finance described the broader mood as a rocky week for investors, with SpaceX earnings and a tech sell-off both in play. We cannot attribute any specific percentage move to SpaceX alone, because the sell-off muddied the signal.
The market logic is easier to explain than the price action. Carrier valuations rest on stable, high-margin subscription revenue. Anything that threatens pricing power, even years out, lowers the multiple investors will pay today. A rival with positive earnings, a large capex budget and a track record of delivering hardware does exactly that.
Tower companies sit in an odd spot. If SpaceX leases sites, Crown Castle and American Tower gain a new tenant. If SpaceX proves it can reduce tower dependence over time, they lose long-term demand. Investors will watch their next disclosures closely for hints about which way it breaks.
Competitive Comparison: SpaceX vs the Big Three
| Dimension | SpaceX (Starlink) | AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Network type | Satellite, adding spectrum for direct-to-device | Terrestrial towers and fiber, plus roaming partners |
| Core strength | Rural and remote coverage, vertical hardware control | Urban capacity, in-building coverage, retail reach |
| Spectrum position | EchoStar (about $17 billion), Grain 800 MHz pending | Long-held licenses across low, mid and high bands |
| Balance sheet signal | $4.4 billion Q3 net income, $19.6 billion capex | AT&T capex of $5.1 billion in Q3 |
| Executive stance | Musk says rivals miss new SpaceX pieces | Stankey, Schulman and Osvaldik defend terrestrial networks |
The table shows two companies solving the same problem from opposite ends. The carriers start with dense urban networks and want better rural reach. SpaceX starts with global reach and wants urban depth. Whoever closes its gap first holds the edge, and neither side can do it alone.
The SpaceX-Tesla Merger Wrinkle
One more variable sits in the background. SpaceX and Tesla formed special committees of independent directors to explore a possible combination, per reports. Musk said a potential SpaceX-Tesla merger would be “a good idea.” He also said he could not participate in merger discussions because he was “a conflicted party.”
For telecom, a merger would pull vehicles, batteries, energy storage and chips into the same corporate orbit as Starlink. That raises questions about in-car connectivity, home energy devices with built-in satellite links and a shared supply chain. We mapped the hardware overlap in how the SpaceX-Tesla merger puts $3.5 trillion of hardware in play. Nothing here is decided, and the committees have not announced a conclusion.
Five Predictions for Carriers and SpaceX
- The FCC review of the Grain deal becomes a lobbying fight. Carriers have opposed spectrum moves before, and an 800 MHz transfer to SpaceX gives them a fresh target. Expect filings from the big three.
- Carrier earnings calls add a standing SpaceX question. Analysts will ask about satellite exposure every quarter until Starlink Mobile either ships or slips.
- Tower companies get pushed to clarify. If the 80,000-site report is wrong, Crown Castle and American Tower have reason to say so. If it is right, they will want to frame it as upside.
- The capex gap keeps drawing headlines. With SpaceX at $19.6 billion in a quarter, any carrier that raises spending will be asked whether it is racing a satellite rival.
- Merger committee news lands before carriers finish adjusting. A SpaceX-Tesla outcome would reshape the hardware story again, and these are our expectations, not confirmed plans.
What Readers Should Watch Next
Three markers will separate hype from fact over the coming months. The first is the FCC’s handling of the Grain Management transfer. The second is any disclosure from Crown Castle or American Tower about a major new tenant. The third is Starlink’s subscriber trajectory from the 13.6 million mark, since faster growth would validate the pessimists and slower growth would vindicate the carriers.
Also watch how the carriers describe their own satellite arrangements. Roaming partnerships, wholesale deals and spectrum swaps are the quiet tools incumbents use when they cannot beat a rival outright. The SpaceX telecom earnings story will keep developing through the next two reporting seasons, and the numbers confirmed so far are already large enough to matter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did SpaceX report in its third-quarter results?
SpaceX reported connectivity revenue, mostly from Starlink, up 69% to $5.25 billion, and net income of $4.4 billion against a $1.1 billion loss a year earlier. Starlink subscribers reached 13.6 million, up from 12 million in the prior period. Adjusted earnings were 45 cents per share, according to IBES calculations.
Why are telecom companies worried about SpaceX?
The concern is about the future more than the present. SpaceX is buying spectrum from EchoStar for approximately $17 billion, has agreed to buy 800 MHz licenses from Grain Management, and plans a phone-to-satellite service called Starlink Mobile. Verizon and T-Mobile shares declined after the earnings news.
How much did SpaceX spend compared with AT&T?
SpaceX reported $19.6 billion in third-quarter capital spending, primarily for AI computing. AT&T reported $5.1 billion for the same quarter. SpaceX’s figure is about 3.8 times larger, though most of it targets AI, not connectivity.
Does the Grain Management deal need government approval?
Yes. SpaceX agreed to acquire 800 MHz spectrum licenses from Grain Management, and the transaction requires Federal Communications Commission approval. Carriers may contest it, as they have contested other spectrum proposals.
Is SpaceX really leasing 80,000 cell towers?
That claim is unconfirmed. Reports say SpaceX plans to lease space on 80,000 U.S. cell-tower sites and is in talks with Crown Castle and American Tower. Neither company has confirmed those talks in the sources we reviewed, so treat it as reporting and not as fact.
Will SpaceX and Tesla merge?
Nothing is decided. SpaceX and Tesla formed special committees of independent directors to explore a possible combination. Musk said a merger would be “a good idea” and said he could not take part in the discussions because he was “a conflicted party.”
How big could a SpaceX mobile network become?
One unconfirmed report says SpaceX could assemble a network serving 20 million to 40 million subscribers. SpaceX has not published a target of that size in the sources we reviewed, so the range is speculation for now.
