Europe's Four Biggest Carriers Are Joining Forces for Satellite Airwaves to Fend Off Elon Musk's Starlink

Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica and Vodafone compete with each other for customers across Europe. On Monday they signed a letter of intent to explore a joint bid for the satellite airwaves Brussels plans to set aside for a European player, so ordinary phones could get signal straight from space.

The reason they are suddenly on the same side has a name. The consortium is meant to stave off competition from Elon Musk's Starlink, Bloomberg reported, which first revealed the talks in early September.

What the four actually agreed

The deal is exploratory. The operators plan to build the key ground network infrastructure in Europe and to run the critical coordination and monitoring functions there, but they will not put money directly into a satellite constellation. That part will come from a satellite partner that has not been chosen yet.

Their statement frames the project around the European Commission's push for sovereignty, security and resilience in critical connectivity. They promise every mobile operator open and non-discriminatory access to offer direct-to-device service, a model they say will foster competition and reduce fragmentation. The stated goals are coverage in underserved areas, sturdier public networks, protection of critical communications and support for a European constellation.

Existing deals stay in place. Vodafone, for one, already runs a joint venture with AST SpaceMobile, which also sells satellite service straight to phones. Under the new plan the carriers would use their partner to extend their own networks and to sell coverage wholesale.

The airwaves at stake

The prize is the 2 GHz band. Viasat and EchoStar hold the current licenses, and those rights expire in May 2027. The Commission's proposal calls the band "the optimal spectrum for the deployment of innovative satellite D2D services" and wants dedicated portions for a secure governmental system and for a "Union new entrant" picked through a competitive EU procedure.

Under the rules the EU is weighing, Bloomberg reported, one third of the spectrum would be earmarked for local companies and another third for critical communications. That local slice is what the four carriers are eyeing.

The American warning

The move mirrors a pact between AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile US, which is itself a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary. And the US shows what happens when SpaceX goes shopping for spectrum. This month it agreed to buy a nationwide 800 MHz portfolio from Grain Management, saying the deal fills a technical gap in its plans for a cellular service called Starlink Mobile.

Investors did not take it calmly. Verizon and AT&T each fell about 10% and T-Mobile about 13%, as we covered when SpaceX moved to turn Starlink Mobile into a US carrier. European operators have every reason to secure their own airwaves before the same thing happens at home.

Nothing is locked in yet. Analyst Paolo Pescatore of PP Foresight told Mobile World Live the announcement is more an exploratory agreement than a confirmed launch. "The opportunity is to make satellite coverage a seamless extension of mobile connectivity," he said, adding that success will depend on execution, device compatibility and pricing that gives customers a compelling reason to pay.

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