The reported talks suggest Charter could support a SpaceX consumer mobile push by carrying some traffic over its ground network alongside Starlink’s satellite service.
SpaceX and Charter Communications have held executive-level talks about partnering on a consumer mobile phone offering in the United States, with Charter potentially routing some SpaceX phone traffic through its ground-based internet infrastructure. The discussions would fit SpaceX’s broader push to become more of a direct-to-consumer mobile provider, extending beyond its Starlink home internet business and its existing $10-a-month Starlink Mobile add-on offered through T-Mobile US for texting and internet-based calls in remote areas. The report also comes as SpaceX has been building the spectrum and terrestrial assets needed for a larger wireless business, including AWS-3 spectrum won in a recent Federal Communications Commission auction and mobile spectrum rights it bought from EchoStar last year. Charter, which recently agreed to combine with Cox Communications, already offers wireless service through Spectrum Mobile using infrastructure-rental deals with T-Mobile and Verizon Communications and routes much of that traffic over its Wi-Fi network.