SpaceX agreed Thursday to acquire Grain Management’s nationwide portfolio of up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band. The purchase still requires FCC approval. The airwaves would improve indoor coverage alongside Starlink’s 2 GHz spectrum as SpaceX combines its satellite network with terrestrial infrastructure. Most existing mobile devices already support the 800 MHz band.
The FCC separately approved up to 15,000 next generation Starlink Mobile satellites this week. The constellation will deliver more than 100 times the bandwidth of the current system. Elon Musk called the spectrum agreement “the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America.”