SpaceX is reportedly in talks with property owners to access as many as 80,000 cell sites and compete with the three major telecommunications operators. Goldman Sachs and Citi analysts distinguish cell sites from cell towers, noting that sites can include rooftops, billboards, water tanks and small cells. Citi said some of the 80,000 sites could be large facilities on colocation structures, while Bernstein argued that major tower lease agreements would reinforce SpaceX’s willingness to control its network following its recent spectrum acquisitions. American Tower and Crown Castle gained 4% and 9%, respectively, while AT&T and T-Mobile fell by nearly 8% and more than 7%. Using the residential Starlink network and 800 MHz spectrum could offload mobile traffic, but AT&T CEO John Stankey said matching the performance levels of major operators will require many years and enormous investment.
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