Elon Musk finds a backdoor into the $235-billion wireless market after being rejected by every major carrier

The main hurdle has been acquiring the rights to operate within the mobile frequency range. While infrastructure sharing is common between telecoms, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all denied Musk’s recent requests to piggyback off their lines.

With no other options, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO found a way to forge his own path.

One deal to get wireless capacity and another to borrow it

Earlier this month, Starlink entered a deal with Grain Management to buy its own portion of low-band spectrum. It’s a move Musk has touted as “the last critical piece of the spectrum puzzle needed to provide complete phone coverage in America.”

The ownership, which is set to be finalized early next year, means the brand can offer more coverage without piggybacking off other carriers. Without it, Starlink’s satellites have limited signal penetration.

On top of that acquisition, it was revealed this week that Musk could be partnering with Boost Mobile to lease some of its capacity. Some experts have argued that Boost’s existing contracts with AT&T prevent this sort of “back door” entry.

As one critic told Investor’s Business Daily, another possibility would give SpaceX some legal ground to stand on: an outright purchase of Boost and its existing agreements.

“If AT&T threatens to cancel the deal, SpaceX could try to use that to bolster a (legal) argument that the telcos are acting anti-competitively,” Sam McHugh, analyst at BNP Paribas, told the outlet on Nov. 2.