Why Elon Musk wants to sell you cell service
Decoder with Nilay Patel
- Published
- October 17, 2026
- Duration
- 53:53
- Summary source
- description
- Last updated
- Oct 21, 2026
Discusses My guest today is Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at LightShed Partners, and we’re discussing Space…
Summary
My guest today is Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at LightShed Partners, and we’re discussing SpaceX’s plan to become a major wireless carrier. Last week, the company agreed to buy a big chunk of low-band spectrum in its bid to build “the world’s most advanced mobile network.” So I wanted to dig into whether SpaceX can pull this off, why Walt thinks the …
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Show notes
My guest today is Walter Piecyk, a telecom analyst at LightShed Partners, and we’re discussing SpaceX’s plan to become a major wireless carrier. Last week, the company agreed to buy a big chunk of low-band spectrum in its bid to build “the world’s most advanced mobile network.” So I wanted to dig into whether SpaceX can pull this off, why Walt thinks the existing telecoms have fumbled their response to Starlink’s growing threat, and what happens when Elon Musk’s rocket company jumps headfirst in