AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile Shares Fall as SpaceX Looks to Capture Market Share

By Elias Schisgall

Shares of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile US, the three major U.S. telecommunications companies, fell after SpaceX said it expects to capture customers with its coming Starlink mobile business.

Shares of Verizon fell 3.6% to $45.19 in after-hours trading. AT&T declined 2.7% to $22.75 and T-Mobile was down 2.4% at $172.90.

SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said that the company's Starlink business is likely to win over a portion of the three firms' customer bases.

"I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better," she said on a Tuesday call.

Shotwell's comments offer some of the clearest signals yet that the company will seek to take share from the telecom giants. She talked about building out a mobile service network on the ground in an investor meeting earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported last month, citing people familiar with the matter.

SpaceX has amassed 65 megahertz of spectrum through deals with EchoStar, and plans to launch satellites for mobile service next year, Shotwell said.

Write to Elias Schisgall at elias.schisgall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 04, 2026 18:40 ET (22:40 GMT)