SpaceX's US spectrum deal knocks Spark and tests NZ's airwaves policy
Spark shares closed down 1.8% on Monday 12 October after SpaceX agreed to buy mobile airwaves across the whole United States. Investors read the deal as a sign that Starlink wants to be a phone company, not just a satellite supplier to phone companies.
SpaceX announced on Thursday 8 October that it had agreed to buy a nationwide portfolio of low-band mobile spectrum in the US. According to Newswire, the deal covers up to 14MHz of paired spectrum in the 800MHz band. SpaceX is buying it from investment firm Grain Management, and the purchase still needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission. Neither company disclosed a price. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, put it at about US$8 billion in cash.
"The last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America," Elon Musk said on X.
The choice of band matters. A phone talking to a satellite needs a clear view of the sky, so the service struggles indoors. Low-band spectrum travels further and gets through buildings better than higher-frequency airwaves, Reuters noted. SpaceX said it would pair its satellites with "an advanced terrestrial deployment" — equipment on the ground. It gave no number of towers and no date for service.
The market reaction reached Wellington and Sydney on Monday. US telco shares fell on Friday, but Friday's trading in New York happens on Saturday New Zealand time, after the NZX has closed for the week. Monday was the first NZX session after the US sell-off. Reuters reported that Telstra fell 2.5% to a six-week low and TPG Telecom lost nearly 5%, its worst day since early June. Spark closed at $1.945, down from Friday's $1.98, and was unchanged on Tuesday, according to NZX data.
US and European telcos fell much harder on Friday. The NZ Herald reported AT&T closed down 9.85% that day and T-Mobile dropped as much as 13% during the session, with Deutsche Telekom down 7.9% and Vodafone 4.5%. CBS News had T-Mobile down 11% and AT&T down 7.4% earlier, in Friday morning trading in New York.
"Investors fear the U.S. is just the first market, and that incumbents' biggest advantage, coverage, is losing its value," David Tuckwell, chief investment officer at ETF Shares in Sydney, told Reuters. Citi analysts drew a different lesson. The purchase "shows the importance of having terrestrial spectrum", they said, according to Reuters. SpaceX had to buy the airwaves that existing telcos already hold.
In New Zealand, Starlink is currently a supplier to the telcos. The Herald reported that Spark, One NZ and 2degrees all resell Starlink's business-grade product. Spark and One NZ also use Starlink for satellite-to-phone service, while 2degrees has backed rival AST SpaceMobile.
One NZ launched satellite texting in December 2024 and added data in February 2026, Newswire reported. The company says more than 10 million messages have gone over the link and that the service reaches around 40% of the country's land area. Spark launched its own Starlink-powered text and data service on 2 April 2026.
Those services run on the local carrier's airwaves. One NZ's satellite service uses 4G on a dedicated slice of One NZ's own mid-band spectrum, according to Newswire. For SpaceX to sell mobile plans directly to New Zealanders, it would need rights to NZ spectrum, licensed through Radio Spectrum Management at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, or a deal with a company that already holds some.
For now, nothing changes for customers. Their satellite texts still go through Spark or One NZ, on those companies' plans.
Whether Starlink could buy its own New Zealand spectrum came up in August, when SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company planned a ground-based network in the US. Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson responded that the Government needed to think about sovereignty and resilience as it divided up spectrum, the Herald reported. 2degrees chief executive Mark Callander told the paper: "It is important to consider who owns, controls and operates critical communications infrastructure."
Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith would not rule out selling spectrum to Starlink when asked after opening 2degrees' SpaceMobile ground station in Marton on 26 August. "We want New Zealanders to have the best possible connectivity but, obviously, we want to see our local providers having a fair playing field and so that's a relevant factor," he said, according to the Herald.
None of the published reports say whether SpaceX has approached the Government or any New Zealand telco about spectrum here. Its 8 October statement does not mention any country other than the United States.