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# SpaceX bought the airwaves for a phone network, and T-Mobile fell 13.27%
- URL: https://www.sharespective.com/stories/spacex-bought-airwaves-phone-network-t-2026-10-10/
- Published: 2026-10-09T21:15:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T19:29:15.000Z
- Description: T-Mobile fell 13.27% to US$148.58 on Friday. AT&T lost 9.81% to US$22.18, and Verizon dropped 8.75% to US$41.65.
- Author: Shaun Botha
- Tags: Telecom, #story, #group-other, SpaceX

T-Mobile fell 13.27% to US$148.58 on Friday. AT&T lost 9.81% to US$22.18, and Verizon dropped 8.75% to US$41.65.

**So what did SpaceX actually buy?** After Thursday's close it agreed to buy up to 14 megahertz of paired 800 MHz spectrum from Grain Management, an infrastructure investor. Grain bought the licences from T-Mobile in August. SpaceX did not say what it paid.

Low-band airwaves travel further and get through walls better than the 2 GHz band Starlink's phone service already uses. SpaceX says most phones already work on the new band. Elon Musk called it "the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle."

[![Chart: T-Mobile's market value sank to US$159.4bn. Two scales, US$bn: yearly revenue on the left; market value at each year end and on 9 Oct 2026 on the right. The value was 256.2 at the end of 2024.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/02/71/0271df32-cec6-421f-9f13-b06ab90e54c1/content/images/2026/10/chart-spacex-scales-yearly-revenue-2026-10-10-wide-light.jpg)](https://www.sharespective.com/chart-spacex-scales-yearly-revenue-2026-10-10/) 

This story’s chart of the day: the numbers, the dark version and the animated version are on its own page. [The chart’s page →](https://www.sharespective.com/chart-spacex-scales-yearly-revenue-2026-10-10/)

The plan is to pair the satellites with towers and small cells on the ground. That showed up elsewhere on the tape. Crown Castle, which rents out space on phone towers, rose 15.60% to US$79.64, and SpaceX added 1.25% to US$162.57.

AST SpaceMobile, a satellite rival that was also interested in Grain's licences, fell 10.48%.

The tell 

how fast SpaceX builds on the ground. The deal still needs the FCC's approval, and a national network takes years and a great many towers. The first city switched on will say more about the carriers than Friday's prices did.

[ This story ran in Bad Reception Saturday 10 October’s edition, with the market snapshot, the other two stories, the numbers and the week ahead. Read the whole edition → ](https://www.sharespective.com/sharespective-2026-10-10/)