SpaceX is looking to buy Boost Mobile from EchoStar, according to a report from The Washington Post. If the deal goes through, it would help the Elon Musk-owned company build a hybrid cellular-satellite network that could help catapult it into fourth place among the top U.S. wireless providers.

The space-launch company has been dabbling in cellular connectivity, rolling out satellite access to T-Mobile’s subscribers in 2024. Last year, SpaceX bought $17 billion worth of wireless spectrum from EchoStar for cellular services, which could help the company’s Starlink service reach inside buildings, for example, something it currently struggles with.

“This is the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed for SpaceX to provide complete phone coverage in America,” Musk said on X at the time of the spectrum acquisition. Yet, if Musk is still looking to buy access to terrestrial networks, it apparently wasn’t the last piece.

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[–] 40 points 5 days ago*

Counter offer, nationalize Starlink and/or force Muskrat to sell it off to somebody who isn't a complete piece of shit and then let them buy Boost Mobile. The last thing anyone needs is Musk any more deeply involved with telecoms or satellites, owning the launch platform should be enough.

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  • [–] 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    It's an obvious move to become "too big to fail" to get hose sweet bailouts when he eventually fails.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 days ago*

    Too big to fail means too big to exist...

    We have an entire branch of law devoted to how we fix this:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_antitrust_law

    30 years of switching between Republicans and neoliberals just stripped it to the bone, we can do build it up again tho.

    Take Elmo's chainsaw and take it to all the major corpos so there's actual competition and no one CEO has this much power ever again.

    We can just do what Teddy did over a century ago, it's not a hypothetical we've fixed this problem before and we can fix it again.

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  • [–] 11 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    I will be cancelling my work phone line pretty fucking quickly if this happens. Keep his Nazi ass away from my cheap Indian sub contracted shitty line.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago

    Not sure this is going to be allowed as contracts for usage on other networks don’t typically survive buyouts.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 days ago (1 child)

    Fuck, what carrier would I switch to?

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  • [+] -10 points 4 days ago

    Hmm that’s pretty cool, I’d definitely look into starlink if he does buy it.

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