SpaceX: EchoStar Spectrum Enables LTE-Like Service
SpaceX expects that the spectrum it's buying from EchoStar, along with the technology in the satellites it plans to deploy, will allow the company to provide LTE-like service. The 50 MHz of spectrum that SpaceX will get from EchoStar "will deliver unparalleled performance" to off-the-shelf mobile phones and IoT devices, SpaceX said Friday in an application seeking approval of the transfer. The $17 billion cash-and-stock deal, announced earlier this month, came shortly after EchoStar also agreed to sell its 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz licenses to AT&T (see 2509080052).
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SpaceX said EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block licenses are "ideal" for direct-to-device services. That spectrum, plus EchoStar's international authorizations to provide mobile satellite service (MSS) in the bands, including U.S. market access for 2 GHz MSS, will let it provide phone, text and broadband services from space to mobile users globally.
SpaceX "will use what it has learned" in its D2D service delivery to build "an even more robust" MSS service using the EchoStar spectrum. It's planning a non-geostationary orbit satellite system just for the EchoStar spectrum.
The constellation that would use the EchoStar spectrum will enable 20 times the throughput capacity as the SpaceX's first-generation Starlink satellites, the company said. The phased arrays and EchoStar spectrum will support an overall capacity increase of more than 100 times its first-generation D2D system. "In most environments, this will enable full 5G cellular connectivity with a comparable consumer experience to current terrestrial LTE service." That service will be used to augment mobile network operators' terrestrial 5G networks, SpaceX added.