The Engagement Dilemma (Part 1): To engage or not

This Is No Longer Just a Starlink Story

Over the last few months, the dynamics between telecom operators and satellite players have started changing noticeably. What began as relatively straightforward partnerships to offer supplemental coverage is slowly evolving into something far more complex, and much of that shift is driven by Starlink. Between Starlink’s recent strategic moves, growing industry discussions around the implications of the SpaceX IPO filing, the changing dynamics are now visible.

 At an investor conference in New York this month, a Wall Street analyst asked T-Mobile's CFO a direct question: is there any scenario where T-Mobile does a deal with Starlink as an MVNO?  The CFO dodged it gracefully. The analyst, Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson, responded with a Jim Carrey impression. "So you're saying there's a chance?" The room laughed and the joke landed because everyone understood that the real question here was not whether there is a scope of engagement between satellite players and telecom operators. That engagement has already happened. The real question now is what the terms of that engagement eventually start to look like, especially as Starlink’s recent moves, including IPO filing, increasingly suggest ambitions that go well beyond supporting telecom operators, and potentially towards directly serving customers under the Starlink Mobile brand.

Days later, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon announced an agreement in principle to form JV to pool spectrum resources, improve capacity, enhance customer experience and extend connectivity into rural and underserved areas through a single platform. The announcement never explicitly mentioned Starlink yet it felt all about Starlink. Because, the announcement comes right on the heels of all three U.S. carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) indicating NO to any MVNO arrangement with Starlink at various public forums. The joint venture announcement and the refusal arrived in the same breath.

Why is Starlink at the center of this conversation?

Th recent IPO filing from SpaceX has intensified this conversation. While the filing may not explicitly position Starlink Mobile as a direct replacement for traditional mobile operators, it does indicate how seriously the company is thinking about spectrum strategy, direct-to-device connectivity, vertically integrated services and long-term customer ownership.

But the IPO filing is only the latest development in a much broader sequence of moves. In November 2025, SpaceX filed a trademark for “Starlink Mobile” and later rebranded its direct-to-consumer services under the same identity at MWC26. Alongside this came the announcement of its second-generation V2 constellation and ambitions around direct-to-device connectivity using EchoStar’s S-band spectrum assets. Taken individually, each of these developments may look incremental. Taken together, they tell a very different story.

Starlink is no longer behaving like a satellite company simply looking to support telecom operators. It is methodically assembling the building blocks of a telecom business - spectrum, branding, distribution, device compatibility and potentially, direct customer ownership.

The numbers are staggering in their own right. Over 10,000 satellites in orbit. Ten million claimed monthly active users on its fixed satellite broadband services. A USD 19.6 billion investment in EchoStar’s S-band spectrum assets. A second-generation constellation reportedly designed to deliver up to 150 Mbps directly to any standard smartphone without any modification. If Starlink Mobile V2 reaches commercial scale and 3GPP Release-17 compatible devices become widely available, it could potentially offer converged mobile and home broadband services under one commercial relationship and bill, and own the customer layer directly.

And that is where the discomfort could begin for telecom operators. The concern is not satellite-based supplemental coverage itself. The concern is what happens if satellite players eventually move beyond connectivity partnerships and start controlling the customer relationship layer by bundling mobile and broadband services, owning billing relationships.

But this is no longer just a Starlink story.

While the industry remains heavily focused on Starlink, the developments in the last few months suggest the other players in the satellite conversation are also moving quickly. They are rapidly securing the resources, spectrum, regulatory approvals and partnerships needed to start materialising D2C connectivity.

Starlink may be dominating the news with largest constellation in orbit and live commercial services with 16 telcos but the competitive picture is more nuanced. AST SpaceMobile leads on partnership count (38 telcos), and Amazon Leo has the capital to scale aggressively.

In the last month, AST SpaceMobile has received authorisations from Brazil’s regulator ANATEL to operate a 248-satellite low-earth orbit constellation for direct-to-device services, including access to S-band frequencies for satellite communications and also approval from FCC in the U.S. to offer supplemental coverage from space using 700/800 MHz premium low-band spectrum in coordination with strategic partners Verizon, AT&T, and FirstNet. On the other hand, Amazon’s proposed acquisition of Globalstar is expected to strengthen Amazon Leo’s satellite ambitions and accelerate its direct-to-device strategy.

And that changes the equation. Because this is no longer just about Starlink trying to enter telecom. It is increasingly about multiple satellite players simultaneously building connectivity ecosystems that could reshape how D2D satellite services are delivered and commercialised in the future. 

And once you start looking at it that way, the recent JV announcement begins to signal something much bigger than a defensive move against Starlink.

In part 2 of this series, I will unpack what this JV may signal, why this announcement matters so much, and how it could be telco industry’s first attempt to redefine engagement model with satellite players.