SpaceX has chosen Qualcomm to supply the equipment for the ground network behind Starlink Mobile, its planned US phone carrier. Under a multi-year agreement, Qualcomm’s Dragonwing base-station platform is meant to go into tens of thousands of 5G cell sites, and the first ones should go live in 2027.
Until now Starlink Mobile has mostly been talked about as a satellite service that connects ordinary phones from space. This deal shows SpaceX also wants a conventional tower network on the ground, the way AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile run theirs, and that satellites will be added on top of it rather than replacing it.
Qualcomm announced the win on X on 4 November. Its post says the Dragonwing line will back Starlink Mobile’s US-wide ground 5G network. Dragonwing is Qualcomm’s range of base-station hardware and software, built to improve coverage, capacity and power efficiency.
Qualcomm’s Durga Malladi, an executive vice president, said the two companies are “building world-leading cellular infrastructure in the United States, advancing 5G today”, and that the partnership gives the pair a chance to set the groundwork for 6G down the line.
SpaceX plans to pair the ground network with its constellation of direct-to-cell satellites, so a phone could move between a tower and a satellite signal. It has already bought a block of wireless spectrum, which a ground network needs as much as the equipment does.
The network is for the United States only. SpaceX has not said whether Starlink Mobile will be offered anywhere else, and this announcement does not mention any other country.
