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Despite facing an FCC investigation, Boost Mobile’s parent company, EchoStar, is gearing up to develop its own satellite system to compete with SpaceX’s cellular Starlink service.
On Friday, the company announced it had selected Canadian satellite developer MDA Space as the main contractor to build a low-Earth orbit constellation to power the satellite-to-phone service. Although the initial contract is valued at about $1.3 billion to manufacture over 100 MDA Aurora satellites, EchoStar expects the constellation to expand over time.
"The full initial configuration of the system consists of 200 satellites with future growth to thousands, as demand requires,” the company said. The total project is estimated to eventually cost $5 billion to help cover the needed rocket launches.
EchoStar, which also owns Hughesnet, originally mentioned the expansion into satellite-to-phone services last year. On Friday, the company offered more details, saying the goal is to power messaging, voice calls, data downloads, and video services for Android and Apple phones through the upcoming satellite constellation.
The FCC is investigating whether EchoStar has fallen short on its 5G buildout commitments and is squatting on its radio spectrum. The review could put the company’s wireless licenses, including for satellite communications, at risk, opening them up to other players.
The FCC investigation prompted the company in late May to warn that its decision making has been “frozen,” and that “it cannot reasonably invest more capital into a buildout if the Commission indicates it may take away its licenses through unprecedented actions.” Still, EchoStar CEO Hamid Akhavan said his company couldn’t wait on the satellite-to-phone service, citing the market demand.
“The opportunity is here now. And if I wait a few more months, my business model gets affected negatively,” he said in an earnings call on Friday. “I want to have this American leadership, and I don’t want to lose it in Europe. I don’t want to lose it in other places.”
(Credit: MDA Space)EchoStar plans on collaborating with mobile carriers to offer the satellite-to-phone service, which could help its Boost Mobile serve users in cellular dead zones. Still, EchoStar joins a growing market which includes SpaceX, Texas-based startup AST SpaceMobile, Skylo, and Apple’s partner Globalstar, a company that’s also contracted MDA Space to build new satellites for phone connectivity.
To stand out, EchoStar’s CEO said in the earnings call that the satellite constellation promises to outperform rivals because it’ll offer better coverage and performance through its control of 2GHz spectrum. EchoStar also plans to “self fund” the constellation, which is being designed to “complement” the terrestrial cellular networks.
Still, the company anticipates the satellites launching in 2028. As a result, EchoStar won’t kick off commercial service until 2029, assuming it can maintain the timeline. The company plans on sharing more about how it’ll pay for the new constellation in the future.
In the meantime, the cellular Starlink service officially launched last week through T-Mobile using over 650 satellites. In addition, SpaceX has been pushing the FCC to let it access EchoStar’s 2GHz spectrum to bolster the cellular Starlink system.