{"id":383110,"date":"2026-11-04T10:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T18:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=383110"},"modified":"2026-11-04T10:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T18:44:27","slug":"starlink-picks-qualcomm-for-its-us-5g-phone-network-launch-set-for-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/starlink-picks-qualcomm-for-its-us-5g-phone-network-launch-set-for-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"Starlink picks Qualcomm for its US 5G phone network: launch set for 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX has picked Qualcomm to provide Dragonwing cellular infrastructure for Starlink Mobile, its planned nationwide 5G network<\/strong> in the US. The idea is for it to work alongside the Starlink satellite service, and the first deployment is expected to start in 2027.<\/p>\n

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The deal runs for multiple years, and if the timeline holds, 2027 is when<\/strong> SpaceX starts pushing past satellite broadband and straight into the same arena as AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. What the company is pitching is a fully integrated satellite-and-terrestrial mobile network, the first of its kind, built to keep people connected in cities, on highways, and out in rural areas when towers go down. Research connected to the plan points to tens of thousands of cell sites, rolled out in several waves and spread across multiple spectrum bands.<\/p>\n\n

Qualcomm is taking care of the radio layer. That includes Massive MIMO 64T64R<\/strong> units, along with Qualcomm QRU100 and Qualcomm QDU100 hardware for radio functions and time-sensitive processing. SpaceX, for its part, is keeping Layer 2 and Layer 3 software in-house. The goal is better coverage, more capacity, stronger spectral efficiency, and better performance per watt. SpaceX has also added more spectrum to the mix: 2 GHz from EchoStar in September 2025, then 800 MHz from Grain Management in October 2026. All of that builds on Direct to Cell messaging, which is already live in the US and New Zealand across more than 400 satellites.<\/p>\n\n

If fewer dead zones sounds good, Starlink Mobile is something to keep an eye on. Still, there are some big obstacles in the way: tower leases, backhaul, permits, regulation, deployment logistics, undisclosed financial terms, and the fact that tower locations still haven’t been made public.<\/p>\n\n

You can’t download<\/strong> Starlink Mobile yet, and you can’t sign up for it either.<\/p>\n

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SpaceX has picked Qualcomm to provide Dragonwing cellular infrastructure for Starlink Mobile, its planned nationwide 5G network in the US. The idea is for it to work alongside the Starlink satellite service, and the first deployment is expected to start in 2027. The deal runs for multiple years, and if the timeline holds, 2027 is … Continue reading “Starlink picks Qualcomm for its US 5G phone network: launch set for 2027”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9349,"featured_media":383109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-383110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t