SpaceX Circles 80,000 US Cell Sites in Bid to Build a Fourth Carrier

SpaceX is quietly shopping for real estate — the kind that holds antennas. The company is in talks with cellular infrastructure firms to lock down access to at least 80,000 sites across the United States, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. If the deals land, they would put SpaceX on a concrete path to becoming the country's fourth nationwide wireless carrier.

That's a huge footprint. Those 80,000 sites would match half of the 158,500 purpose-built cell towers that were up and running in the US last year, according to the Wireless Infrastructure Association. Among the players in the mix: mobile infrastructure provider Crown Castle, which the report says is in talks with SpaceX.

The tower math is serious. Crown Castle runs roughly 40,000 US cell towers, American Tower holds about 42,000 US sites, and privately held Vertical Bridge owns around 18,000. Crown Castle CEO Christian Hillabrant, asked Wednesday about potential leases with SpaceX and Amazon, said the company was talking to 'all parties' — but wouldn't name names.

The price tag is the catch. TD Cowen estimates a nationwide terrestrial network would run north of $80 billion, and would eat up many years and billions more in spending along the way. SpaceX is already buying nationwide low-band spectrum, per the report.

Investors in the incumbents flinched. Shares of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile dropped between 4.2 per cent and 5 per cent in extended trading. Crown Castle, American Tower, Vertical Bridge and SpaceX did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.