The High-Stakes Battle for Invisible Real Estate in Space

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is working to grab invisible real estate: the radio spectrum that carries wireless signals. Its competitors are doing the same. That has set off a race that resembles the land rushes of the 19th century, except in the air.

Radio spectrum cannot be legally owned. But as it has become more valuable, companies and governments have been jostling to control more of it. On Earth, competitors have heavily invested in staking out the rights to use broader swaths of airwaves. And in space, China and other countries have suggested they may want more say over who uses which spectrum to communicate with Earth.

In the United States, licenses to use specific spectrum bands serve as pseudo property rights. The Federal Communications Commission allows them to be bought, sold and leased (with its approval), and it renews them almost automatically, absent misconduct. The industry trade group USTelecom told a federal court the industry sank more than $230 billion into F.C.C. auctions as well as $700 billion into networks on the assumption it was buying something close to property.

Shares of phone and cable companies have been under pressure in recent months over fears that SpaceX will scoop up more spectrum at an auction next year and use it to compete with them, including by connecting ordinary cellphones directly to satellites.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/business/dealbook/spacex-spectrum-battle.html