
CEO Timotheus Höttges sees the satellite company SpaceX as a serious competitor for the mobile communications business.
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T-Mobile US has previously been a partner of Starlink for satellite connections in dead spots. SpaceX is now planning to build its own nationwide 5G network with Qualcomm.
Dusseldorf. Billionaire Elon Musk could become a direct competitor to Telekom. Telekom is now assuming this scenario and is preparing for it, as CEO Timotheus Höttges publicly admitted for the first time on Thursday. "We take this competition very seriously. We also believe that we have to assume that it will come," said Höttges.
With the satellite company SpaceX, which went public in the US in June, CEO Elon Musk operates a mobile communications service called Starlink. It is the company's most lucrative area, which also includes artificial intelligence and the rocket business. In the USA, Telekom's US subsidiary, T-Mobile US, was Starlink's first partner. In regions without cell phone reception, T-Mobile customers could rely on satellite connections.
However, SpaceX is taking steps to no longer be a partner to established network operators and to become a full-fledged mobile operator itself. On Wednesday, SpaceX entered into a partnership with the US chip company Qualcomm to build a nationwide 5G mobile network in the USA. Tens of thousands of cell phone sites are planned. The expansion will begin next year.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
SpaceX will begin expanding its 5G cell phone sites next year.
Likely · Within months

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