It is the most recent sign that Musk’s Starlink plans to compete directly with AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. SpaceX wants to grow its Starlink mobile business, which analysts expect to hit $15 billion in revenue this year and which SpaceX, in its IPO pitch to investors, pegged at a $740 billion market. If SpaceX competes in those auctions, it could force legacy carriers to incur unsustainable amounts of debt —they already have high costs of capital and are more debt-laden than SpaceX. SpaceX could opt to issue new shares to cover the cost, structuring it similarly to when it bought Cursor in a $60 billion all-stock deal last month. Musk also bought spectrum licenses from Charlie Ergen’s Echostar in a $17 billion deal.