I was wrong in thinking that SpaceX would buy 5G celltower equipment from the Echostar auction. It is the wrong equipment to get and involves paying rent to cell tower companies.
SpaceX can make its own small cell systems at supercharger sites and on cybercabs. Another problem with the Dish Wireless system was that it was not every good and incoomplet. It could not get into many buildings. It lacks the needed densification.
Starlink small-cell integration using Supercharger sites and Cybercabs (with vehicle Starlink) is how SpaceX and Tesla will likely deploy a direct to cellphone system. It leverages assets they already own or control, eliminates traditional tower-company rents, and pairs naturally with the factory Starlink V5 integration now confirmed in Cybercabs (and planned for broader Tesla vehicles).
SpaceX should buy the CBRS band spectrum from Echostar to make the small cell strategy work better and faster. Citizen band radio spectrum would let small cells interlink more easily.
Analyst Professor Tim Farrar (of TMF Associates) released a report on Starlink’s profile and forecasts which contains detailed forecasts of the consumer, government and D2D businesses as well as analysis of Starlink’s technology and regulatory progress.
Farrar also states that… pic.twitter.com/bioW9AglnY
— Brian Basson (@BassonBrain) July 27, 2026
1. Supercharger sites as fixed small-cell hosts
Tesla operates roughly 8,400–8,500 Supercharger stations globally with ~80,000 stalls (U.S. portion ~3,000 stations / 37,000+ stalls as of mid-2026). This is still growing quickly.
These are high-value locations at highways, urban edges, retail parking, travel corridors.
Each site can host one or more outdoor small cells (pico or micro).
Typical outdoor small-cell range is 200–2,000 meters depending on power, spectrum (CBRS ideal), height, and frequency.
3,000 U.S. sites could create meaningful corridor and suburban capacity layers—especially along interstates and in secondary cities—without trying to blanketed dense urban cores.
Incremental densification is easy by starting with high-traffic Superchargers and expanding.
Economics (major advantage) Hardware + install for a modern outdoor small cell is typically $5k–$30k (far below a macro).
Power isessentially free at the margin. Superchargers already have high-capacity electrical service (hundreds of kW to multi-MW). Adding a 5–20 W or even 5–10 W small cell is negligible.
Backhaul can be done by Starlink (internal transfer pricing, low marginal cost). No fiber trenching required in most cases.
Site lease / tower rent would be free $0. Tesla owns or controls the real estate and vertical assets. Traditional macro or small-cell deployments often pay $1,000–$5,000+ per month to tower companies or landlords.
Result dramatically lower TCO and faster payback than conventional densification. Capacity can be added precisely where Tesla already has presence and power.
2. Cybercabs and Tesla vehicles as mobile densifiers
Cybercabs already ship with factory-integrated Starlink V5 (high-performance phased-array antenna in the roof/liftgate). Musk has stated Starlink will expand to all Tesla vehicles. This creates two layers with Vehicle’s own connectivity (FSD data uplink, robotaxi operations, passenger experience).
Potential dual-use – the vehicle hosts or acts as a low-power mobile small cell / relay.
Densification potential would scale with the robotaxi fleet or with the Tesla fleet. In high-demand zones (city centers, airports, events, stadiums) where Cybercabs naturally concentrate, you get opportunistic capacity bubbles. A large fleet (hundreds of thousands over time) could provide significant localized densification during peak hours.
Coverage is inherently mobile and demand-following—exactly where users are.
The incremental hardware cost on a Cybercab already carrying Starlink V5 is relatively low (shared antenna resources, power from the large battery pack, cooling from vehicle systems).
No site acquisition or lease costs.
Utilization is high in commercial robotaxi service.
Challenges reduce pure economic attractiveness relative to fixed Supercharger cells (see technical issues below).
3. Technical issues
Fixed Supercharger small cells (more straightforward) Backhaul- Starlink works and is already used by some operators for remote cell sites. V5 offers higher capacity. Latency is acceptable for most mobile traffic (~20–40 ms). Beam contention is manageable with good scheduling.
Power & mounting are excellent.
Interference & spectrum CBRS (shared) is well-suited. Coordination with macros required.
Regulatory is easier on private property.
Indoor penetration would still be limited (same as any outdoor small cell). This would need powerwall systems or teslabot systems.
Mobile Cybercab / vehicle small cells (harder)
Mobile systems need constant handovers, Doppler shift, rapidly changing interference patterns, and coverage holes when vehicles move or park. Starlink communication works with moving systems (planes, trains, buses, cars, satellites).
Power & thermal- Manageable but not free—impacts vehicle range slightly if transmitting at higher power.
Regulatory- Mobile base stations face stricter licensing, emission, and safety rules than fixed ones.
Antenna integration: Sharing or co-locating with the existing Starlink V5 array is non-trivial (different frequency bands, beam management).
Network control: Requires sophisticated SON (self-organizing network) software to turn cells on/off, adjust power, and avoid creating more problems than they solve.
Reliability: Cannot be counted on as primary coverage. Best as capacity boost.
Common issues Overall capacity density still far below a well-planned traditional dense urban macro + small-cell grid.
Synchronization, timing, and core-network integration for a hybrid satellite + terrestrial RAN.
Scaling management software across thousands of fixed + potentially tens/hundreds of thousands of mobile nodes.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
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