SpaceX Picks Qualcomm to Build Starlink Mobile's Nationwide 5G Network on the Ground

Starlink Mobile, the phone service SpaceX has run from orbit until now, is getting a network on the ground. Qualcomm Technologies announced on November 4, 2026 that SpaceX selected its Dragonwing Cellular Infrastructure platforms for "its Starlink Mobile U.S. nationwide terrestrial 5G network." 5G is the fifth generation of cellular technology, the standard today's phones use for fast data. SpaceX plans to begin the nationwide rollout in 2027, "with tens of thousands of sites deployed over the multi-year agreement," according to the release. Qualcomm posted the news on X at 6:30 AM Arizona time.

For phone owners, the goal is fewer dead spots. Michael Nicolls, Senior Vice President of Starlink, said in the announcement: "We shouldn't live in a time where phone calls are still dropping whether you're at home or on-the-go. Starlink is building the first fully-integrated nationwide satellite and terrestrial network that will keep people connected no matter where they are." He added that Qualcomm's platforms will help SpaceX "accelerate our timeline to develop our base station end-to-end architecture."

Each Starlink Mobile site will use Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) radio units with 64 transmit and 64 receive paths, an antenna design that aims many beams at many phones at once. Qualcomm says the design improves coverage, capacity, and spectral efficiency, the amount of data a network carries on each slice of airwaves. Qualcomm's QRU100 platform runs the radio unit on the tower, and its QDU100 platform runs the distributed unit, the computer that handles the first layer of signal processing for each site. Durga Malladi, an executive vice president at Qualcomm Technologies, said, "Building a nationwide network demands high performance and power efficiency at every site." Neither company disclosed the value of the agreement.

The ground network completes a plan SpaceX has been assembling for more than a year. Starlink Direct to Cell, its satellite service for ordinary phones, already lets people text where no tower reaches. In September 2025 SpaceX agreed to buy EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block airwaves, two bands licensed for mobile service, in a deal worth $17 billion, half in cash and half in SpaceX stock. On October 8, 2026 SpaceX announced an agreement for a nationwide low-band spectrum portfolio and said it would pave the way for Starlink to become a major mobile carrier in the United States.

Qualcomm described the deal as "a commercial step toward SpaceX and Qualcomm Technologies' broader vision for AI-native 6G infrastructure," the generation of networks after 5G. The first Starlink Mobile sites built on Dragonwing are due to start going up next year, alongside the more than 11,100 Starlink satellites in orbit that SpaceX reported in its October 22 quarterly filing.