Daily newsletter · Sat 24 Oct 2026
T-Mobile and AT&T fell almost 8% after a report that SpaceX wants 80,000 cell sites
T-Mobile closed Friday at US$146.54, down 7.71%. AT&T fell 7.96% to US$20.93, and Verizon lost 1.19%.
SpaceX wants to become America's fourth phone company. Bloomberg reported on Thursday that it is in talks for access to at least 80,000 US cell sites. That is about half the country's purpose-built towers, and Crown Castle is one of the owners at the table.
The tower owners had a very good day. Crown Castle rose 9.06% to US$85.97, and American Tower gained 4.08%. Crown Castle collects most of its rent from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, so a fourth big tenant would be new money.
This builds on a deal from earlier in the month. SpaceX agreed to pay US$8 billion for Grain Management's 800MHz licences, low-frequency airwaves that travel a long way and get through walls. The purchase still needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
Towers would fix the weak spot in a satellite network. Verizon chief executive Dan Schulman has argued that physics stops satellites competing well in cities and suburbs. Equipment on the ground gets round that.
talks can end without a signed lease, as Truist analyst Matthew Niknam pointed out on Friday. Dish signed long-term tower leases for its own network, and its parent sold most of that spectrum in 2025. I'd want to see signed contracts before treating Friday's falls as permanent. T-Mobile reports on Wednesday in New York.
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All stories →- Saturday 10 October SpaceX bought the airwaves for a phone network, and T-Mobile fell 13.27%
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