SpaceX Seeks 80,000 US Cell Sites for Starlink Mobile, Bloomberg Says

SpaceX wants room on at least 80,000 cell sites across the US for a ground network beneath its Starlink Mobile satellites, Bloomberg News reported on 22 October. Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said SpaceX is in talks with at least one major tower owner, and named Crown Castle as one of them. It added that the deals “could reach into the billions”.

Neither company has confirmed the figure or the talks. SpaceX did not respond to Bloomberg, and American Tower declined to comment. But both SpaceX and Crown Castle discussed a terrestrial build on their own earnings calls this week, and what their executives said fits the report.

Crown Castle’s chief executive says it is “talking to all parties”

On Crown Castle’s third-quarter call on 21 October, an analyst asked about lease talks with satellite companies, “whether it’s SpaceX, Amazon, or anyone else”. Chief executive Chris Hillabrant replied: “Look, I don’t think I want to get into customer-specific detail, but you can assume that we’re talking to all parties,” according to a transcript of the call.

In his prepared remarks, Hillabrant said: “We believe SpaceX’s mobile network ambitions could provide an additional catalyst in two ways. First, to invest directly by leasing towers to build their previously announced terrestrial network.”

Asked how many sites SpaceX might need, he said it “really depends on the strategy in which SpaceX decides to go to market”. Speed would favour “maximizing the number of co-locations on existing towers and rooftops”, and Crown Castle could offer “approximately 40,000 sites”. Pressed later on whether SpaceX had actually approached the company, he repeated that Crown Castle would not discuss individual customers.

Chief financial officer Sunit Patel explained why the spectrum matters to tower owners: “you need low band to get into buildings.” He called SpaceX’s purchase “a huge milestone”.

SpaceX has said it will build on the ground as well as in orbit

SpaceX set this up on 8 October, when it announced an agreement to buy up to 14MHz of paired 800MHz spectrum from Grain Management. The deal is subject to FCC approval. SpaceX said that with it, “Starlink Mobile can now become the first network operator to deploy both satellite and terrestrial spectrum”. TSN covered the deal in its space roundup that week.

On SpaceX’s third-quarter call on 20 October, Elon Musk said the company “will be building out our terrestrial network”. President Gwynne Shotwell said the spectrum and the FCC’s approval of 15,000 new satellites “will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile carrier in the U.S.”, as TSN reported from the results.

Shotwell also described a cheaper route than towers alone. She spoke of “smaller radios” that could sit on existing Starlink installations at homes and businesses, “towers as well”, adding: “We will basically leverage the real estate from Starlink installs and other towers.”

Bloomberg’s figure would need more than one landlord

If the 80,000 figure is right, it is twice the portfolio Crown Castle says it has. No single tower company could supply it, which fits Bloomberg’s decision to approach American Tower and Vertical Bridge as well. It also makes Hillabrant’s careful “all parties” answer look like the most any landlord will say for now.

The number also shows what Shotwell’s rooftop plan cannot do on its own. MoffettNathanson told Bloomberg that Starlink home installations sit where subscribers are, “not necessarily where they are needed to provide consistent coverage”. A nationwide carrier needs coverage along roads and in places nobody has a dish. Towers fill that gap, and a search for tens of thousands of them suggests SpaceX accepts it.

DISH’s abandoned network is the shortcut Crown Castle is offering

Crown Castle has its own reasons to talk this up. DISH’s exit cost it $61 million in site rental billings in the quarter, according to its results release. Hillabrant said DISH “had 12,000-plus installed sites” on Crown Castle towers, and called the network DISH left behind “the industry cheat code”. Patel said some of DISH’s equipment is still up there, and that building the DISH network “took DISH like four years”. He suggested a new tenant could go faster.

That is a sales pitch, but it is also the clearest public signal of how a SpaceX build might work: reuse sites that have already been through zoning and permitting rather than start from bare land. SpaceX has not said which route it will take, and its spectrum deal still needs FCC sign-off. More SpaceX coverage is on TSN’s Musk companies hub, including how VEON customers have used Starlink Mobile abroad.

Until a lease is signed, 80,000 remains a target reported by Bloomberg rather than a contract either side has disclosed.

Sources

• Bloomberg News via Yahoo Finance: SpaceX in Talks to Access 80,000 Cell Sites for Wireless Network (22 Oct 2026)
• Crown Castle Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool, 21 Oct 2026)
• Crown Castle: Third Quarter 2026 Results (GlobeNewswire, 21 Oct 2026)
• SpaceX: Building the world’s most advanced mobile network (8 Oct 2026)
• Grain Management: Definitive agreement to sell 800MHz portfolio to SpaceX (8 Oct 2026)
• SpaceX investor relations: Q3 2026 results and webcast
• SpaceX Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool, 20 Oct 2026)

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