The FCC Voted 3-0 to Propose 482 MHz More Spectrum for Phones That Talk to Satellites. It's the Rulebook Starlink Mobile Wants, and It Isn't Final.

Honest fence (read first): This was a vote to propose new rules, called a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Nothing changes for your phone yet. The FCC now takes public comments, then has to vote again to adopt final rules, and it hasn't set a date. Our earlier posts covered SpaceX's spectrum purchases and its search for cell sites. This post is about the rulebook those plans depend on.

Editorial Thesis

On Thursday, Oct 29, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-0 to rewrite its rules for direct-to-device service, the tech that lets an ordinary phone connect straight to a satellite. Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty all approved.

The headline number is in the FCC's own release: the proposal would grow the number of bands where this "supplemental coverage from space" is allowed "from five to 13 bands, to make an additional 482 megahertz of spectrum available."

Carr called it "our most comprehensive step yet to modernize the FCC's rules for direct-to-device."

For Starlink Mobile, which is SpaceX's satellite-to-phone service, that's the claim. The proof that matters most comes later, in the final rules.

Honest Verdict

Proven (FCC release, FCC 26-71): a unanimous vote proposing 13 eligible bands instead of five, 482 MHz more spectrum, and an end to two requirements that have needed routine waivers. Proven (same meeting): a separate proposal to auction 25 MHz in the 1675-1695 MHz and 2020-2025 MHz bands. Contested: which bands survive. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile asked the FCC to drop two of them. Not done: final rules, a final vote date, and any specific new service for Starlink customers.

What the proposal actually changes

The FCC first wrote these rules in 2024. Under them, a satellite company could use a mobile carrier's airwaves for phone-to-satellite service if it leased them, and the rules were built around big, nationwide areas. That's how T-Mobile's satellite texting with Starlink works today.

Carr said the 2024 rules were already out of date. The proposal would:

1. Add bands. Thirteen eligible bands instead of five, for 482 megahertz more.
2. Drop the lease requirement. Today a satellite operator has to lease spectrum from the carriers holding it across a large area. Instead, an operator could show it has coexistence agreements with those carriers, or that it holds the ground license itself.
3. Allow smaller license areas. An operator could pick an area that covers only where it actually serves, instead of the old "geographically independent area" rule.
4. Line up two rulebooks. It would harmonize these rules with the separate mobile-satellite service (MSS) rules, and ask whether to codify exclusive rights in some MSS bands.
5. Ask about performance. It seeks comment on minimum performance requirements so the service gives "meaningful consumer benefits."

Point 2 matters most for SpaceX. It has spent this year buying its own spectrum licenses. A rule that lets the license holder offer phone-to-satellite service without leasing from every carrier fits that strategy.

The pushback

Before the vote, the carriers' trade group CTIA asked the FCC to strip out the 2.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz bands, used by T-Mobile and AT&T. Those two bands make up 290 MHz of the 482 MHz, according to TeslaNorth. The carriers argued that satellites are too far away to stay in sync with ground towers in those bands, which use the same channels for upload and download at different times.

The FCC didn't drop them, but it moved. "We adjusted how we're seeking comment on bands that can be used for TDD," Wireless Bureau chief Joel Taubenblatt told reporters, according to Broadband Breakfast. The FCC also didn't act on a last-minute SpaceX request to add part of the lower 900 MHz band.

SpaceX went on the attack in a separate filing. In reply comments dated Oct 28, for the US position ahead of the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference, it said T-Mobile's proposed protection limits for cell towers would create buffer zones of more than 400 kilometers, "disenfranchising millions from direct-to-cell service." It added that "the misplaced desire to harm a competitor has led many incumbents to oppose modernized rules."

T-Mobile is also Starlink's current direct-to-cell partner. That's the awkward part of this fight.

Why the FCC says it's moving now

Carr pointed to money. About $45 billion in direct-to-device spectrum deals happened in the past year, he said, naming SpaceX/EchoStar, Amazon/Globalstar and Rocket Lab/Iridium, according to Via Satellite.

On the auction, he said: "We expect big interest in this seemingly modest amount of spectrum , indeed, similar D2D bands are selling for tens of billions of dollars on the secondary market today." Part of the 1675-1695 MHz band still needs a government study, which Carr said should finish by early 2027.

And on balance: "I am confident that we can bring more D2D flexibility while maintaining America's world-class 5G networks."

What it means if you have a phone

Nothing today. Satellite texting where it already exists keeps working as it does. If the final rules look like this proposal, satellite companies get more airwaves and more ways to get them. That's the path to more than emergency texts, such as data and calls in dead zones.

The bigger question is speed. Comment rounds take months, and the band fight could shrink the 482 MHz.

The video

We embed the FCC's own October 2026 Open Commission Meeting video (2:19:16), posted Thursday. It's the primary record of the vote and Carr's remarks. It's long, and we couldn't play it on our research machine, so the quotes here come from the FCC's release and posts and the outlets listed. Nerra Network's 10-minute recap from Friday is the alternate.

What would change our read

• The full FCC 26-71 text and its comment deadlines.
• The band list after comments. If 2.5 GHz and 3.45 GHz drop out, 482 MHz shrinks by about 290.
• A final vote date.
• T-Mobile's response to SpaceX's filing, given they're partners today.

Bottom line

The FCC voted 3-0 to propose 13 direct-to-device bands instead of five, adding 482 MHz, and to let satellite operators skip leasing from every carrier. That's the rulebook Starlink Mobile is built to use. The carriers are fighting over the biggest bands, and it's a proposal open for comment, not a final rule.