6 comments

• pzatchok

  November 7, 2025 at 6:38 pm

  I could see things like this years ago.

  The last step is the larger company buying up the smaller totally just to take the customers and removing a competitor.
• Rockribbed1

  November 8, 2025 at 5:42 am

  Starlink India will lead to incredible revenue for the company. IPO is likely coming soon
• Edward

  November 8, 2025 at 12:14 pm

  pzatchok,
  Echostar started life as a television provider by geostationary satellites and dish antennas. The same with Dish, which Echostar bought. Internet services came later.

  SpaceX is not buying up another company, just one of their unused frequency spectra. They are not removing a competitor. In fact, they are doing the opposite and assisting their competitor while doing themselves a favor.

  Echostar has a limited time in which to begin using this spectrum, and they are not going to make it in a timely manner, which means that they will be seen by the satellite communications community as sitting on this spectrum so that no one else can use it, and they would be right. Instead, SpaceX is helping Echostar keep its reputation and SpaceX gets some frequencies that it can use in time. in In addition, in exchange for the rights to that spectrum — rights that it will soon lose — Echostar gets some useful assets that it can turn into cash whenever necessary. Otherwise, Edhostar’s books soon lose the value of that spectrum.

  Everyone wins, including and especially We the People, who soon will have the expanded services that come from using that spectrum.
• Dick Eagleson

  November 8, 2025 at 1:49 pm

  pzatchok,

  You seem to be starting from an assumption that EchoStar is a going concern with a future. It isn’t. It’s current management seem to have finally realized this recently, hence their decisions to cancel the teensy LEO satellite constellation that had been ordered and their sale of spectrum assets to SpaceX – while they were still assets. I expect EchoStar to sell off the rest of its assets in a reasonably expeditious manner before any of them have to be marked down to zero. The greatest shareholder value, in other words, is now realizable only through what amounts to liquidation. Edward did a good job of explaining the basics of this.

  The analogy I would use is to the early days of automobiles. SpaceX is the equivalent, here, of a new and rapidly-growing car company that is buying out a chain of livery stables so it can convert the properties into dealerships and showrooms.
• Dick Eagleson

  November 9, 2025 at 1:47 am

  Rockribbed1,

  Starlink will do pretty well in India, but it will take awhile to do so. I don’t foresee India vaulting in a year or two from zero to being one of Starlink’s top two or three markets. Long-term, anything is possible, I suppose, but India has a long history of insularity and self-reliance, even if that sometimes means it lags anent the most current technology in a given sector. Starlink will make inroads, but they will not come in a rush.

  A nice “get” would be IndiGo as an airline client. IndiGo is India’s largest airline by passenger boardings and fleet size and does not currently offer in-flight Wi-Fi on any of its planes. It is apparently in talks with multiple service providers and one can assume that Starlink is likely among them, but there is no done deal with any provider as yet. Even when a deal is struck, it will initially be for only 25 planes out of IndiGo’s total fleet of over 450. India is, on the whole, cautious in dealing on a major scale with non-Indian entities.

  Air India is not a likely Starlink prospect as it is a subsidiary of Tata Group and that combine also includes a broadband connectivity company, Nelco, that uses GEO sats to provide service. Nelco is from where Air India sources in-flight Wi-Fi.

  The slope of the Starlink constellation sat count and total bandwidth build-out line is positive, but also roughly linear. The next jump to a steeper upward slope will come in 2026 as Starship-delivered Starlink V3 satellites start joining the established fleet of V2 minis – which will also continue to expand. This will allow the rate of subscriber base expansion – which is currently metered in some markets – to rise accordingly. The recent rate of Starlink customer base increase has been about a million every 60 – 90 days. But this rate, itself, is increasing. The Starlink customer base will enter double-digit millions territory early in 2026 and might even double from its current level by the end of 2026.

  That, of course, only counts broadband customers. Given Starlink’s increasing direct-to-cell capability, the total number of people who can access Starlink emergency and wilderness comms via cell phones will soon rise into the three-digit millions, then beyond a billion. Given that this sort of connectivity will be a standard feature of Optimus robots, there might actually be more of those on the Starlink network on a routine basis by mid-century than there are people. Starlink broadband will also likely become a standard feature on Tesla automobiles in coming years – and perhaps those of other marques as well.

  The upside is quite breathtaking. SpaceX – via Starlink – may well wind up dicing with Tesla or even xAI for the title of Elon’s most valuable creation.

  That being the case – and given that Mars awaits – I don’t foresee any near-term move to take Starlink public. And given the shenanigans that Elon’s political enemies have managed anent publicly-traded Tesla, I think keeping SpaceX, Starlink and the rest of the non-Tesla Musk-iverse privately held will deprive said enemies of a lot of places they would otherwise find to stick their pry bars in.
• Edward

  November 11, 2025 at 2:48 pm

  Dick Eagleson,
  “I don’t foresee any near-term move to take Starlink public.”

  I agree. The reason to take a company public is to raise funds, either to expand the company or to repay the venture capitalists. Starlink needs neither, as it is its own cash cow.