- Fierce caught up with T-Mobile Chief Network Officer Ankur Kapoor last week and got his take on the “un-carrier’s” direct-to-device (D2D) satellite service
- T-Mobile is working with SpaceX, which he called “the best partner in the industry”
- The conversation took place just days before SpaceX was granted a waiver by the FCC to operate at a higher power to serve T-Mobile’s D2D service
Over objections from AT&T and Verizon, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday granted SpaceX’s request for a waiver to operate Starlink at a higher power to serve T-Mobile’s direct-to-device (D2D) satellite offering.
The waiver is significant on a number of levels. For one, it’s a win for T-Mobile, which is leapfrogging its rivals AT&T and Verizon in the satellite messaging wars. It’s a blow to AT&T and Verizon, which had argued that increased emissions could degrade the performance of their terrestrial networks.
And perhaps most intriguing to those watching the wireless vs. Elon Musk spectrum wars, it’s another vote of confidence for the SpaceX owner and billionaire who contributed millions of dollars to President Trump’s campaign and now serves in a unique position overseeing Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
What just happened?
In its opposition to the waiver, AT&T had argued that based on a network performance analysis, the higher power levels would result in an 18% reduction in average network throughput on AT&T’s service. Verizon and EchoStar also opposed the waiver.
In its analysis, the FCC said SpaceX provided engineering analysis in support of its claim that harmful interference in adjacent bands is unlikely to occur. In addition, T-Mobile provided its own technical analysis in which it concludes the waiver poses a low likelihood of harmful interference.
If harmful interference occurs, SpaceX must immediately address it or it won’t be able to continue operating under the waiver.
Why it matters
Of course, everybody is watching to see how much the U.S. government hands over to Elon Musk, who enjoys a unique position next to President Trump.
Fierce asked Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, for his take on the latest development.
“Elon gets the benefit of the doubt,” Entner said. “The temporary order says that Starlink will have to adjust if there is an impact. If AT&T and others actually can show that their modeling of an 18% capacity hit on their network is anywhere near that, we’ll find out how strong Elon’s power actually is.”
Zooming out
Fierce caught up with T-Mobile Chief Network Officer Ankur Kapoor during Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona last week, so we couldn’t resist connecting the dots here. Our conversation took place before Friday’s FCC decision.
T-Mobile’s D2D service is now in beta, where “hundreds of thousands” of customers signed up for it.
“It was great because half the customers that signed up for that were actually non-T-Mobile customers,” he said. “So we’re getting a lot of interest from our competitors.”
Roughly 500,000 square miles of land mass in United States are not covered by terrestrial networks and the satellite-powered service aims to serve those areas – for example, hikers in the middle of the woods.
“We think we can actually solve that customer pain point. The technology needs to advance a lot, but we think we have the best partner in the industry on that with SpaceX,” Kapoor said.
Currently, they’re offering texting and picture messaging. Eventually, the ambition is to move beyond that, to voice and low-impact data services. But video certainly is not imminent.
“I think we are probably some time away from when you can sit on a non-terrestrial network and watch a YouTube video or a Netflix movie. I hope someday we get there,” he said, suggesting that might be where 6G comes in and terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks are closer entwined.
“But right now, our focus is mostly on the on the messaging and the voice applications as well as skinny data,” he said.
It’s worth noting that carriers like T-Mobile maintain that satellites can’t replace terrestrial networks. For example, satellite connectivity isn’t appropriate for serving dense downtown areas with tall buildings that block satellite signals and areas where people tend to gather in high volumes.
“If you look at how much spectrum we have on our SpaceX service right now, it's a fraction of what we have on the traditional network,” Kapoor noted. “The capacity is thousands of times less than what we have on the traditional network. But it does great because these are places where a very small number of people go.”