SpaceX is building out a ground network for Starlink Mobile. Qualcomm said on Wednesday that SpaceX has selected its Dragonwing QRU100 and QDU100 cellular infrastructure platforms, plus commercial-grade Layer 1 software, for Starlink Mobile's US nationwide terrestrial 5G network.
The network will use Massive MIMO radio units with 64 transmit and 64 receive paths (64T64R), which Qualcomm says are designed to improve coverage, capacity and spectral efficiency. SpaceX plans to begin the nationwide rollout in 2027, with tens of thousands of sites deployed over the multi-year agreement. Financial terms were not disclosed.
«We shouldn't live in a time where phone calls are still dropping whether you're at home or on-the-go,» said Michael Nicolls, Starlink's senior vice president, adding that Starlink is building «the first fully-integrated nationwide satellite and terrestrial network.»
Teslarati reports that Qualcomm described the pact as its largest 5G deal to date and that the network will use roughly 65 MHz of mid-band spectrum acquired from EchoStar and up to 14 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management.
