AT&T's CEO throws shade at Musk's Starlink mobile ambitions

"I wouldn't over-rotate on what I would call one carrier of low band spectrum," John Stankey said Wednesday, referring to Elon Musk's Starlink. Win McNamee/Getty Images (Musk); Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images (Stankey) Elon Musk wants SpaceX to become a major US mobile carrier. AT&T CEO John Stankey says: not so fast.AT&T has an advantage from years of investment in dense urban and suburban areas, he said on AT&T's third-quarter earnings call, a day after Musk and SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell reported more than 22 million monthly Starlink Mobile users."Our competitors cannot and will not match our operating proficiency, network performance, or exceptional converged value proposition," Stankey said.Stankey sees a use case for satellite-based internet to soften the edges of fiber-connected and 5G networks, especially in places where it's too expensive to build out the physical infrastructure, he said."I think LEO constellations are fantastic for delivering bandwidth to rural areas," he said, using the acronym for low-Earth orbit satellite arrays.Shotwell said Tuesday that Starlink recently got FCC approval to launch 15,000 V2 satellites. She also noted a recent agreement to acquire a portfolio of low-band transmission spectrum, or wireless frequency licenses, which better penetrate buildings to reach indoor devices.Stankey was unimpressed."How you perform indoors, of course, is extremely important, and we shouldn't think about those as being nominal loads," he said. "They're significant loads, even with robust Wi-Fi networks that are out there."This is especially critical in crowded environments like stadiums and hospitals, where he said AT&T has been focused on beefing up signal support. "I wouldn't over-rotate on what I would call one carrier of low band spectrum," he said, referring to Starlink. Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Dominick Reuter is a senior retail reporter for Business Insider, primarily covering Walmart, Target, Costco, and other big box retailers. His stories tend to focus on issues and trends that affect employees and customers, such as affordability challenges and the growing race to provide ultra-fast delivery services on e-commerce orders.Prior to joining BI in 2019, Dominick worked for more than a decade as an independent photojournalist covering a wide range of stories for global wire services and newspapers, including Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Agence France-Presse.Dominick studied photojournalism at Boston University and later earned a Masters in business and economics journalism from Columbia University.If you're an employee or customer with a story to share, please contact me via email or text/call/Signal at 646-768-4750. SpaceX Starlink Elon Musk More