Starlink for smartphones: T-Mobile sees unexpectedly low usage
SpaceX has been able to double Starlink's customer base for two consecutive years, a US magazine reports. Meanwhile, T-Mobile sees unexpectedly low interest.
(Image: Juan Alejandro Bernal/ Shutterstock.com)
At T-Mobile, the satellite connection for conventional smartphones via Starlink is used much less frequently than the US provider expected. T-Mobile's CEO admitted this during the presentation of the latest business figures, but at the same time assured that it is a “great supplementary product.” The satellite connection is primarily used in national parks, and it is assumed that the technology will increasingly develop into a standard function. At T-Mobile, one pays an extra 10 US dollars per month for the function; in return, one can send and receive text messages, share their location, make emergency calls, and even send photos and voice messages via Google Messages, even when outside the mobile network.
Annual doubling of user numbers
Starlink has been built by Elon Musk's space company SpaceX since 2019. Over 10,000 satellites in low Earth orbit enable fast internet connections on all continents, regardless of the existing network infrastructure. According to internal information seen by the industry magazine The Information, Starlink had a total of 8.9 million individual customers at the end of 2025, more than double the number from a year earlier and almost four times as many as in 2023. At the same time, the revenue the service generated per paid subscription fell to 81 US dollars per month. This is primarily due to the introduction of cheaper options and expansion into markets where the service has been available at lower prices from the outset.
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SpaceX is currently preparing for a historic IPO; for this purpose, the space company was merged with the AI and social media firm xAI, which also belongs to Elon Musk. Two weeks ago, The Information reported, citing stock exchange documents, that the resulting company generates a large part of its revenue and even more than its entire adjusted profit from satellite internet Starlink. In the prospectus that the US magazine has now reviewed, SpaceX announces that revenue per user is likely to continue to fall in the coming years. Due to the significant importance of Starlink for SpaceX's business, these figures are likely to be closely scrutinized before the IPO.
(mho)
