The large telecommunications operators in Europe have suffered significant declines in the stock market, with drops reaching 8% at closing, in a context marked by the purchase by the American SpaceX of a portfolio of low-band spectrum licenses and its plan to transform Starlink into a mobile phone operator.
In the Old Continent, Deutsche Telekom has led the cuts with a collapse of 7.94% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In London, Vodafone has fallen by 4.86%, while Telefónica has ceded 4.61% in the Spanish market and Orange has lost 2.5% on the Paris stock exchange.
In the United States, around 6:00 PM in Spain (12:00 PM on the East Coast), Verizon Communications was down 11.42% and AT&T was down 10.8%, while, in the opposite direction, SpaceX was up 1.63% on Wall Street.
From Banco Sabadell, its analysts have pointed out that the operation "affects one of the risks that have been weighing" on the stock market evolution of Deutsche Telekom. In parallel, its subsidiary in the United States, T-Mobile US, was collapsing by 12.35%.
Regarding the technical impact of the transaction, experts indicate that "The acquired spectrum seems suitable for coverage in rural and remote areas, but not to compete in urban capacity, where we believe T-Mobile US maintains a position of strength."
The company led by Elon Musk has confirmed the closing of a deal to acquire a national portfolio of low-band spectrum licenses that includes up to 14 megahertz of paired spectrum in the 800 MHz band, which, according to the company itself, "will pave the way for Starlink Mobile to become a major mobile phone operator in the U.S."
After the final authorization from the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), SpaceX has detailed that Starlink Mobile will deploy a flexible architecture that will combine its constellation of mobile satellites in orbit with an advanced terrestrial network, with the aim of providing uninterrupted connection to devices in any location.
In this line, the company has emphasized that, although the global mid-band spectrum of 2 gigahertz (GHz) from Starlink Mobile will provide a high bandwidth capacity in the United States, the new low band will act as an additional layer of coverage that will allow the Starlink Mobile signal to penetrate obstacles, such as walls, and serve users' devices even inside buildings.