Big Three Mobile Carriers Planning to Pool Spectrum for Satellite Operators

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2026 – The three national mobile carriers are planning on a joint venture to pool their spectrum resources and create a platform for direct-to-device satellite companies to partner with them and access those airwaves.

The carriers each have individual deals with satellite companies to provide service on their terrestrial spectrum outside the reach of their networks. T-Mobile already offers its T-Satellite service with SpaceX, and AT&T and Verizon are backing AST SpaceMobile, which is aiming to deliver service by the end of the year.

Those agreements would remain in place and the carriers “can continue connectivity efforts independently,” the companies said  in a release Thursday. The joint venture also still hasn’t been finalized.

The carriers said they were trying to foster competition in the direct-to-device space. SpaceX is the furthest along with about 650 satellites supporting its T-Mobile service, but AST and Amazon are hoping to compete. 

“Through combined investment by the three JV partners, provider options will expand, and, as a first step, D2D access will improve,” the carriers wrote. “This will enhance competition as consumer choices grow in satellite service.”

The carriers said they would create a “unified platform” for accessing their collecting spectrum and take a “standards-based approach to development involving operating system providers, mobile app developers and original equipment manufacturers.”

While the JV would provide easier access to the carriers’ terrestrial spectrum, satellite companies have ambitions to provide service on their own airwaves. Amazon is buying Globalstar, which uses its own spectrum to provide direct-to-device service to Apple phones, and AST is asking to use Ligado’s satellite spectrum on a future constellation.

SpaceX’s nearly $20 billion purchase of airwaves from EchoStar was also approved by federal regulators this week. The company is hoping to launch 15,000 satellites to use that spectrum to support much higher mobile speeds.

That’s led to questions about whether SpaceX would try competing directly with the terrestrial mobile carriers or seek a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deal and offer its own branded mobile service aided by one of their networks. The carriers’ CEOs have each been quick to downplay the idea and say they’re not interested in offering an MVNO.

BNP Paribas analyst Sam McHugh said in an investor note that it was hard not to see the move as a “shot across the bow at SpaceX” and an attempt to reduce its influence in the direct-to-device market.

“While the JV will prevent any of the carriers from gaining an advantage over one another on D2C services in order to capture a larger share of any D2C monetization opportunity, it also reduces the odds that SpaceX will be able to monopolize direct-to-cell in order to fund any wider ambitions they may have in the wireless market,” he wrote.

Satellite industry analyst Tim Farrar, head of TMF Associates, said in a post on X he also saw the JV as “clearly designed to present a united front in any negotiation to make use of Starlink's next gen system. But it emphasizes multiple players and is in addition to existing arrangements.”

He wrote that the carriers might be interested in ensuring Amazon’s plans to compete come to fruition. The company’s Amazon Leo constellation is aimed at fixed broadband, and it’s planning to dip into direct-to-device through the recently announced purchase of Globalstar.

In a statement on the carriers’ release, T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan said “With the expansion of satellite constellations, soon to be supported by multiple space-based operators, this JV will use expanded capacity and improved performance to deliver the best possible service to customers.”

Verizon CEO Dan Schulman also said the partnership “increases competition for satellite providers.”

Rural mobile operators would also be able to work with the JV “to enable them to bring new products to market for their customers,” according to the release. Rural wireless carriers were upset that the Federal Communications Commission approved EchoStar spectrum sales, one of which went to AT&T, arguing spectrum consolidation among the three dominant carriers was stifling competition.