SpaceX in Talks for 80,000 Cell Sites as It Pushes Toward a Fourth Wireless Carrier

SpaceX is in talks to secure at least 80,000 US cell sites, roughly half the country's purpose-built towers, as part of its push to become a fourth nationwide wireless carrier, Bloomberg reported on October 22 citing people familiar with the matter. Crown Castle, one of the largest owners of cellular infrastructure in the country, was named as a company SpaceX is negotiating with; American Tower and Vertical Bridge Holdings were also mentioned as possible additional partners, though no contract has been signed and neither company has confirmed talks.

The market reacted immediately. Crown Castle shares jumped more than 9% and American Tower rose about 4% on the news, while the three existing major carriers fell sharply: AT&T dropped nearly 8%, T-Mobile fell about 7.7%, and Verizon slipped roughly 1.2%. SpaceX itself, which trades privately but has secondary-market pricing, ticked up nearly 2%. The move follows an $8 billion purchase of low-frequency wireless spectrum that SpaceX agreed to on October 9, a deal that also pressured telecom stocks at the time and signaled the company's wireless ambitions were accelerating beyond its existing satellite-to-phone service.

For tower companies, a well-funded fourth tenant is close to pure upside: towers are typically leased to multiple carriers simultaneously, and adding a new tenant to existing infrastructure generates additional rent at comparatively little extra cost. Crown Castle's own securities filings show it owns or operates roughly 40,000 towers, with about 93% of its site-rental revenue coming from AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile combined, a concentration that has made new tenants rare since T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint left the market with effectively three national carriers.

Whether SpaceX actually becomes a disruptive fourth carrier is a longer question. The company's commercial wireless service isn't expected to launch until late 2027, it currently has no wireless subscribers, and it holds less spectrum than any of the big three. The last company to attempt a similar build-out, Dish Network, signed long-term tower leases to construct a 5G network before its parent sold most of its spectrum in 2025 and began winding the network down, ending in legal disputes with its tower landlords. Sprint's earlier run as the fourth major carrier also showed that adding a fourth competitor doesn't necessarily change pricing power much once a network reaches scale. For now, investors are pricing in a deal that, as of Friday, had not yet been signed.