By
Chimamanda U. Martha
March 13th, 2024
For SpaceX, the partnership with T-Mobile is not the first experience of collaboration with a telecommunications company. Back in June, Musk said that SpaceX had “two quite significant partnerships with major country telecommunications companies.”
Elon Musk‘s spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX and wireless network operator T-Mobile US Inc (NASDAQ: TMUS) will reveal their plans to “increase connectivity” at SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, tonight. The event will be hosted by Elon Musk and T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert. According to Elon Musk, it will be “something special.”
This is something special https://t.co/LSMIRYT8zf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 24, 2022
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, is a private spacecraft manufacturer and owner of Starlink, satellite internet constellation that provides satellite Internet access. As of August 2022, about 2,900 Starlink satellites have been launched in 39 countries. Meanwhile, T-Mobile is one of the largest wireless phone and internet access providers in the US that claims to create America’s largest, fastest, and most reliable 5G network. T-Mobile has more than 100 million subscribers. SpaceX aims to reach global coverage, and T-Mobile might help to achieve that.
Elon Musk said:
“Starlink can provide connectivity for a whole village of like 200 people type of thing and then, in that case, it would be like 50 cents a month per person. I think that’s pretty affordable.”
Tim Farrar, consultant with TMF Associates, commented:
“T-Mobile has gaps in 5G coverage that could be filled by reselling Starlink, while Starlink needs to go beyond early adopters that are happy with self-installation and minimal customer support to reach the wider group of potential customers who need more hand holding.”
For SpaceX, the partnership with T-Mobile is not the first experience of collaboration with a telecommunications company. Back in June, Musk said that SpaceX had “two quite significant partnerships with major country telecommunications companies.” However, he did not reveal the names of the companies. at that time, he also said SpaceX was in additional discussions with other telecommunications companies to provide Starlink access.
T-Mobile Shares Soar
Following the announcement about the collaboration between T-Mobile and SpaceX, T-Mobile stock jumped to close 1.02% up, at $145.33, on Wednesday. In the pre-market trading today, TMUS shares are further 1.36% up, trading at $147.30. TMUS market cap has totaled as much as $180.41 billion. Year-to-date, TMUS stock is 25.31% up.
Last week, T-Mobile suffered a data breach, with more than 100 million customers involved. The data were notably obtained from multiple T-Mobile servers and the information accessed included social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver license information.
Notably, the data breach did not affect TMU stock’s performance. Currently, analysts have a median target of $169.00 per TMUS share, with a high estimate of $214.00 and a low estimate of $128.00. The rating of the stock is a “buy” now.