As Starlink continues to broaden its service offerings, T-Mobile’s Chief Executive Officer does not see the company as a threat to its mobile business lines.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Srini Gopalan said that Starlink Mobile is not really serving a gap in the market and is struggling to see the use case for everyday consumers.
In the interview with the Financial Times, Gopalan said:
What is the gap in the market that they’re looking to serve? I always prefer starting these conversations back from the customer: Why would a customer buy a new cellular service? Where do they go? What’s their differentiation? It’s clearly not having a broad network…
Instead, Gopalan sees the satellite company and its services as complementary technologies to existing cellular networks. For instance, T-Mobile uses Starlink services to expand its network coverage area in rural and mountainous terrain in the United States.
The comments come after Elon Musk confirmed this week that Starlink will build out a US mobile service. He further confirmed the move on the SpaceX earnings call earlier this week, noting that Starlink’s network would “probably” have a better connection than other terrestrial carriers. Naturally, Starlink would be competing for customers of the big three telecoms in the United States, but it remains unclear whether the US public would want to jump ship to a satellite mobile carrier.
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