
“Alea iacta est” The battle lines in telecom have officially been drawn. SpaceX’s 80,000 ground tower push to build a 4th carrier is the confirmation of ASTS’s core thesis: Even with 15,000 satellites, you still need massive terrestrial infrastructure to serve the retail market. By choosing to build its own 4th carrier, $SPCX forces AT&T and Verizon to accelerate $ASTS commercial rollout to defend their turf. Space-based cellular won’t kill mobile network operators, it is going to save them.