SpaceX selected Qualcomm to provide network infrastructure hardware and software for Starlink Mobile’s planned terrestrial network build, an agreement that includes additional details on the architecture of that still-gestating network architecture that SpaceX claims it will begin rolling out next year.

Qualcomm noted it will be providing its Dragonwing Cellular Infrastructure platform to support Starlink Mobile’s terrestrial base stations. That platform is based on Qualcomm’s QRU100 and QDU100 platforms and layer-one (L1) software to support multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology for radio units and distributed units as part of a virtualized radio access network (vRAN) architecture.

The vendor more specifically cited SpaceX’s plans to use “massive” MIMO antennas that will feature 64 transmit and 64 receive (64T64R) paths per antenna. This technology allows for more granular coverage and control for each antenna unit to support such features as beamforming and management.

Starlink Mobile’s site math

Qualcomm also stated that “SpaceX plans for U.S. nationwide deployment rollout to begin in 2027, with tens-of-thousands of sites deployed over the multi-year agreement.”

SpaceX management earlier this year teased terrestrial network plans in support of a potential Starlink Mobile service, plans that relied heavily on its already installed Starlink Broadband antennas and could be done at a much lower cost than forecast.

“Let me give a little hint, and that is you could put a base station, a cellular base station, on the … gear that holds a Starlink broadband dish, so you can have kind of these little femtocells around the country, and you deploy that as you need it,” SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell told investors during the company’s second-quarter (Q2) earnings call. “You don't have to necessarily spend, you know, 10 or many billions of dollars in low-band spectrum all up front before you deploy your system, so that's why I don't want to talk about the capex for building out the terrestrial because we have a lot of really kind of great and new ideas for how we're going to do that, and I think it will be quite capex efficient.”

Shotwell’s comments followed SpaceX gaining approval to purchase 65-megahertz of spectrum in the 2 GHz band for more than $11 billion from EchoStar, but prior to SpaceX signing a deal with Grain Management to purchase 14-megahertz of spectrum in the 800 MHz band for a reported $8 billion.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk during that Q2 earnings call furthered Shotwell’s argument, stating the firm feels “reasonably confident that we can deploy a large number of sort of small stations, essentially, that they're really just Starlink dishes that also provide connectivity in the mobile spectrum bands and have them be all over the place.”

Musk added that these already deployed Starlink broadband antennas “are located on the roofs of houses and businesses, so … they've got a sort of a clear view to for providing connectivity directly to the cell phones on the ground, and in fact providing connectivity that is, we think, probably better and higher bandwidth than what is currently available from cellular providers.”

SpaceX has since been rumored to be in negotiations with domestic tower companies to deploy antennas at up to 80,000 cell sites and to be looking at potentially acquiring EchoStar’s Boost Mobile service.

Elon Musk teases longer presentation

SpaceX management was more reserved on its Starlink Mobile plans during its most recent earnings call.

Shotwell did note that Wi-Fi networks serve up to 93% of mobile traffic, a service that the Starlink Broadband offering using its S-band spectrum can support, but that the low-band 800 MHz spectrum could help provide service within buildings that do not have Wi-Fi.

“So if you’re not on Wi-Fi you can still receive the signal,” Shotwell said of that architecture. “I think – and by the way, I’ll correct myself if I’m wrong afterwards – but I think the S-band will carry the majority, and then the low-band spectrum will carry less but provide a critical piece.”

Musk added that the company “probably should do a longer presentation on the game plan for Starlink connectivity and why we think it will ultimately be a business that generates several hundred-billion-dollars in revenue a year, because you are missing some of the pieces that we know about internally. I can say we do see a clear path to several hundred-billion-dollars a year in connectivity revenue, but I think we should probably describe that in more detail in a forum that’s not limited to a few minutes at an earnings call.”