Starlink mobile has 10 million monthly active customers for direct to cellphone 4G capability. This is with 650 V2 mini satellites. They support text, voice, basic data and basic video calls. SpaceX will launch V3 satellites that are three times bigger and 100 times the capacity. This will enable 5G capability at 150 mbps in ideal conditions in most of the world. This should be sufficiently deployed by mid-2027. They will use the new sBand spectrum acquired from Echostar. This is about ten times better spectrum. 20 times the downlink performance of the first generation satellite. V3 have large phased array antennas five times the size of the ones on the V2 mini and four times the bandwidth per beam. 20 by 20 megahertz beams. New capabilities like MIMO. They will use the new NTN standard modems. NTN improves the experience by up to ten times especially when you are at the edge of a beam. V3 will have one hundred times the data density of the current SpaceX DTC satellites. There are 16 times the number of beams per satellite for V3 over V2 mini. Per V3 satellite 100 gigabits on download and 50 gigabits on upload. This is comparable to the SpaceX broadband satellites. They will launch 50+ satellites per launch. They want to get to 1200 satellites within 6 months of starting to launch. They have an FCC filing to have 15000 satellites for DTC. SpaceX has 35 global partners and those partners have 1.7 billion subscribers. Screenshot At 150 Mbps shared/peak (not guaranteed sustained for all), a mature constellation could theoretically support hundreds of millions to low billions of users worldwide for occasional/backup use. In practice, expect hundreds of millions active monthly by late 2028-2029. SpaceX emphasizes it’s complementary — not competing directly with dense terrestrial networks — so density limits are mitigated by offloading to ground infrastructure where available. The 5G capability could see $10-30 per month per subscriber. It would also be bundled into premium packages where SpaceX gets about ~20% of revenue by eliminating the need for 70% of cell towers in remote and and urban areas. In 2028, IF 10–20% of partner base adopts/enables DTC (170–340 million users), even at low ARPU ($5–15/month wholesale/share), it could generate $10–50B+ annually. In 2029-2030, IF ~30-40% of partner base adopts and more partners join/enables DTC (partner base at 3 billion users then 1+ billion Starlink mobile), even at low ARPU ($5–15/month wholesale/share), it could generate $100–200B+ annually. AST SpaceMobile- Starlink Mobile Competitor Current fleet: ~6 BlueBird satellites in orbit (Block 1 + early Block 2). Next-Gen BlueBird (Block 2) specs have Massive ~2,400 sq ft phased-array antenna 10 GHz processing bandwidth per satellite (10× prior generation). 120 Mbps peak per coverage cell (supports voice, full data, video streaming). 2,000+ active cells/beams per satellite. Each cell can handle millions of connections every day Brian Wang Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology. Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels. A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements. Categories