Aaron Gregg

Elon Musk has disrupted one industry after another, from space rockets and electric vehicles to humanoid robots. His latest target: the stodgy club of mobile networks. The recent announcement that SpaceX is purchasing $17 billion in wireless spectrum has sent jitters through an industry now eyeing the prospect of Elon-style disruptions to a market long dominated by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. The new bandwidth is destined for use by SpaceX’s satellite service, Starlink. Starlink’s entry into the sector is likely to put new pressure on major U.S.

The White House has pushed the Pentagon to set up a controversial spectrum-leasing plan matching one being proposed by a politically connected company called Rivada Networks, which wants the lucrative job of using that spectrum to create a nationwide 5G network. Rivada proposing that it create a 5G network and rent out that spectrum to private companies such as Netflix, Facebook or Tesla. Some of the revenue would be sent back to the federal government. If the arrangement moved forward, a formal procurement process would determine what sort of fees Rivada could collect.