https://www.lightreading.com/5g/tower-companies-now-own-dish-s-abandoned-5g-radios-and-spacex-might-become-a-buyer?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202026-10-28%20Light%20Reading%20%5Bissue:90732%5D&utm_term=Light%20Reading
8 replies (most recent on top)
"Yes will work great when I’m snow skiing or at a national park. All other times I’ll be on my network which is 99.999%."
You still think an outdated pundit on telco or traditional satellite matters. Elon already disrupted the car industry, satellite launch industry and recently the satellite comms industry. Next DISRUPTION will the mobile industry and probably the fiber industry!!
@cw
I agree. Some people here still not aware (SMH) that Elon will build a parallel terrestrial mobile network (abandoned by DISH) and then augmented by basic/backhaul Starlink + Data Centers in the sky.
Most of the tech involved will be space based and therefore creating a business model the traditional telcos cannot compete on. US telco biz will be the trial showcase market and then maybe the rest of the world. US ARPU is still good compared to the rest of the world.
“ This is a thing because his name is musk. Starlink will be a Virtual operator like mint mobile but better because it has satellite backups. Sorry but the math ain’t mathin just to be in 4th place. Latency is a real thing.“
He’s now building a terrestrial RAN network (cell sites). Try to keep up.
@bv somewhat correct. The large venue DAS systems are generally owned and maintained by 3rd party and all of the carriers hop on. So it’d likely be much the same for starlink. I’m not an Elon cheerleader but it’s obvious the carriers and stock prices are rattled. For all we know, they’ve been engineering their own proprietary hardware/software. It’ll be interesting and I think this is a good thing for pricing. I’d jump ship given the opportunity on the starlink side. We’re handicapped by red tape here at ATT. I’d bet it’d be a lot different. Actual decisions being made vs operating in grey area.
Mob tech here. The majority of my sites have Dish platforms and equipment on the tower. Just left these tower companies holding the bag. You can be sure they’re eager to work with Elon as it’ll help them recover cost.
Yes will work great when I’m snow skiing or at a national park. All other times I’ll be on my network which is 99.999%. This is a thing because his name is musk. Starlink will be a Virtual operator like mint mobile but better because it has satellite backups. Sorry but the math ain’t mathin just to be in 4th place. Latency is a real thing.
Satellite cannot compete in terms of latency. He’s going to crash pricing and the ceo of Verizon has priced his ambitions at $500b for a total of buildout. Every congested space like stadiums have been outfitted with microcells at a cost of millions per site. Long story short it’d be cheaper to merge with one of the big three than to build a competitive entrant. Took over 20years of huge capex to build what’s out there. I think as we move forward you’ll see a change in this story.
Starlink Terrestrial 5G radios + Starlink backhaul + Starlink Data Center (5G core network) in the sky....is the winning formula.
How can the incumbent telcos compete??