SpaceX plans to launch Starlink mobile service in the US

Move would test whether group can turn ambition into a mass-market phone business. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has told investors that it plans to launch a new Starlink mobile service for US consumers, in a move that would upend the country’s multibillion-dollar phone network market. The company’s president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, told investors during a recent IPO roadshow that the group was considering launching a Starlink retail product and could build its own terrestrial US mobile network, according to four people familiar with the matter. The move would require Starlink to build a new retail offering by selling mobile contracts to individual customers, competing directly with the three big US network operators Verizon Wireless, AT&T. and T-Mobile. To date, SpaceX has offered more limited direct-to-consumer services in the US, preferring to give telecoms groups such as T-Mobile access to its satellites to supplement their existing network coverage in rural areas. Although the terms of Starlink’s commercial deals are not disclosed, analysts believe it takes a cut from revenues generated by those customers whose mobile deals include access to its satellites. SpaceX’s