Starlink Phone Service Moves Closer as FCC Accepts SpaceX's 800 MHz Grain Deal for Review

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened its review of SpaceX's Starlink spectrum purchase from Grain Management on November 10, 2026, moving Starlink phone service on SpaceX's own 800 MHz airwaves one step closer. In a public notice released at 10 AM Arizona time, the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau said the applications had been found "upon initial review, to be acceptable for filing." Acceptance opens the public comment period: comments and petitions to deny are due December 1, and oppositions are due December 8. For Starlink Mobile customers, the licenses carry low-band signals, which Light Reading notes can reach through walls and rooftops, giving Starlink Mobile the indoor coverage a full phone carrier needs.

The deal covers 546 paired licenses held by two Grain companies, Prism License Co. 1 and Prism License Co. 2, which would pass to Starlink Spectrum Holdings, a wholly owned SpaceX subsidiary. Together they hold up to 14 megahertz (MHz, the width of a slice of airwaves) in the 817 to 824 MHz and 862 to 869 MHz bands, across 3,224 counties in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. The notice puts that at about 100% of the US population. Our Starlink Direct to Cell explainer covers the satellite phone service these airwaves would join.

Why SpaceX wants the 800 MHz band

SpaceX announced the purchase on October 8, and Elon Musk wrote on X that afternoon: "This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America."

The new band adds reach to the 2 GHz (gigahertz) airwaves SpaceX agreed to buy from EchoStar in September 2025 for $17 billion, which carry more data but travel less far. In its announcement, SpaceX said "most existing mobile devices already support this underused band," which means phones people carry today can pick it up. Neither company disclosed the price; The Wall Street Journal reported $8 billion in cash.

What the FCC will weigh

After the deal, SpaceX would hold up to 89 MHz of spectrum in each area, including up to 14 MHz below 1 GHz, according to the applicants' figures in the notice. That is less than a quarter of the 385 MHz level the FCC uses to flag a deal for closer competition review, Teslarati reports. The FCC also attached strict buildout conditions in July 2026, when it approved Grain's purchase of these licenses from T-Mobile, so that the airwaves are put to use quickly on the ground and for direct-to-device service, and those conditions would apply to SpaceX if the transfer is approved.

A second SpaceX application, filed October 27, asks to use the same frequencies from orbit for supplemental coverage from space (SCS), the FCC's term for satellite service that fills the gaps in a ground network, and it is still pending. On the ground, SpaceX picked Qualcomm on November 4 to supply 5G radios for tens of thousands of Starlink Mobile cell sites starting in 2027, and these 800 MHz licenses are among the airwaves those sites could carry.