US telecom stocks declined on Friday after a report that SpaceX was seeking thousands of cell sites for a fourth wireless carrier, fueling concerns over fresh competition.
\n\nElon Musk’s rocket and space technology company was in talks to access at least 80,000 cell sites to build its wireless carrier from scratch, Bloomberg News reported late on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
\n\nAT&T fell 5.6% to a more than three-month low, Verizon lost 1.6% and T-Mobile shed 5%.
\n\nGermany’s Deutsche Telekom, which holds an over 50% stake in T-Mobile, lost 3.2%.
\n\n”The competitive impact may still be years away, but anticipation alone, reinforced by each successive spectrum and infrastructure move, is likely to remain an overhang on sector sentiment,” Bernstein analysts said in a note.
\n\nTower operators and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
\n\nThe report comes weeks after SpaceX acquired low-band spectrum to advance its carrier plans, mounting a direct, orbital challenge to legacy wireless giants in the US and sending AT&T and Verizon shares to their worst one-day falls in more than two decades.
\n\nBernstein analysts said that an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) deal with SpaceX may not appeal to telecom operators, but…
Original source: https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/
