Why SpaceX made a $17B bet on the direct-to-cell market

SpaceX just fired off one of the biggest shots yet in the spectrum wars, agreeing to pay $17 billion to take over a massive chunk of wireless airwaves from EchoStar for Starlink’s direct-to-cell services.

The deal is the most aggressive signal yet that SpaceX wants to rule the satellite-to-phone market.

The significance of the sale, which sees SpaceX paying a mix of $8.5 billion in cash and $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock, centers around a finite resource: spectrum. Spectrum refers to the range of radio frequencies that carry wireless signals…