Starlink might be less of a threat to mobile operators than Elon Musk claims

Musk has recently been bullish about Starlink's potential as a rival to T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T
However, T-Mobile's CEO sees satellite connectivity as complementary to conventional coverage
As such, they think that Starlink's threat to mobile operators has been exaggerated

If you believe Elon Musk, then Starlink could soon pose a major threat to the US’s mobile operators, but the CEO of T-Mobile disagrees.

According to Musk in a recent earnings call, Starlink’s terrestrial cellular network will “probably” offer better connectivity and higher bandwidth than cellular providers like T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T. In fact, Musk even went so far as to say that he envisions Starlink will ultimately "deliver a majority of the world's internet."

As a result, Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX (which owns Starlink), added that she expects the company to “acquire quite a few” customers from those mobile networks.

But in an interview with the Financial Times, T-Mobile’s CEO Srini Gopalan argued that “you’ve got to ask the question of ‘what is the gap in the market that they’re looking to serve?’,” adding “I always prefer starting these conversations back from the customer: why would a customer buy a new cellular service? Where do they go? What’s their differentiation? It’s clearly not having a broad network.”

An alternative or an addition?

Of course, Musk has arguably already answered the question of differentiation with his claims of Starlink having higher bandwidth and better connectivity, and indeed T-Mobile already leverages Starlink satellites to boost its rural coverage.

But Gopalan suggests that this is how things should be, with satellite connectivity being “complementary” to existing networks.

So it remains to be seen who is right here. A lot might come down to price, and whether Starlink continues giving the likes of T-Mobile access to its satellites once it has launched a rival service.

That service isn’t expected until the end of 2027, though, so T-Mobile and the US’s other mobile operators have some time to make sure they remain competitive.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.