Qualcomm will help SpaceX build Starlink Mobile's nationwide US 5G network

Back in August, SpaceX made it clear that itwants to compete with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizonin the US. Of course, a proper carrier needs more than satellites. Today, Qualcomm announced that SpaceX has picked its Dragonwing Cellular Infrastructure platforms for Starlink Mobile's nationwide terrestrial 5G network. The base stations will be built on the Dragonwing QRU100 and QDU100 platforms, along with Qualcomm's commercial-grade Layer 1 software. Starlink Mobile will use Massive MIMO radio units with 64 transmit and 64 receive paths (64T64R), which are designed to improve coverage, capacity, and spectral efficiency. The QRU100 handles the processing for those radio units, while the QDU100 takes care of latency-sensitive Layer 1 processing, and together they're meant to improve performance per watt.

Michael Nicolls, Starlink's Senior Vice President, says phone calls shouldn't still be dropping in this day and age, whether you're at home or on the go, and that Starlink is building "the first fully-integrated nationwide satellite and terrestrial network". He adds that working with Qualcomm will speed up SpaceX's timeline for developing its end-to-end base station architecture. Last month, SpaceXbought 800MHz spectrum for indoor coverage, while T-Mobile's CEOruled out letting SpaceX run on its network. Just yesterday, a report claimed that SpaceXmay even buy Boost Mobilefrom EchoStar to speed up its plans to turn into a full-fledged carrier. Source