Bank: “SpaceX should lobby for an MVNO”
July 2, 2026
BNP-Paribas senior analyst Sam McHugh, in a note to clients, said that the investment bank had hosted a call with Claude Aiken, a former FCC lawyer and advisor to two FCC Commissioners, to discuss whether there are regulatory paths that SpaceX could use to gain access to the Big Three networks, assuming none of the carriers offer them an Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) on commercial terms.
In his note, McHugh summarised the discussion and key takeaways. He asked whether SpaceX could use a regulatory path to force roaming access? “For voice, maybe; for data, probably not,” he said.
McHugh said: “While there is a ‘mandatory roaming’ rule within FCC regulation that SpaceX could attempt to use to fill the gaps in its direct-to-cell network (perhaps also complemented with Cable Wi-Fi offload), the regulation only requires roaming on ‘commercially reasonable’ terms, effectively meaning the carriers could easily decline to give SpaceX access to their networks. This makes it practically impossible for SpaceX to use FCC regulation to gain access to the wireless carrier networks. SpaceX’s best bet would be to lobby for an MVNO as a remedy to a future merger (as happened with Sprint/T-Mobile and Dish, which in our view makes a TMUS cable deal even less likely).”
McHugh continued: “Whether SpaceX could get an MVNO by buying Charter or Comcast is another matter, but we suspect Charter and Comcast’s MVNO with Verizon wouldn’t survive a SpaceX acquisition (Verizon management have indicated as much recently). As a result, SpaceX’s only organic option may be to buy more spectrum and build its own terrestrial network facilities, but their lack of participation in the AWS-3 auction and talks of a Charter Wi-Fi offload deal (in our view a poor solution, highlighting their lack of real options) hint at this being a very difficult proposition. Still the overhang on wireless names around SpaceX may well persist until the upper C-Band auction next year, or until SpaceX and T-Mobile renew their D2C deal or SpaceX signs a D2C deal with VZ or T (which could potentially be a sign of détente in tensions).”
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