Elon Musk has his sights set on the cell phone industry

There are few limbs of the tech industry Elon Musk has not grabbed onto. Now the controversial magnate, licking his wounds following the midterm results and coming discontinuation of Tesla’s Cybertruck, has found his latest venture. The SpaceX owner reportedly hopes to get a foothold in telecommunications by acquiring one of America’s most notable mobile companies.

Making a ‘play’ for the US market

Musk wants SpaceX to acquire Boost Mobile via a deal with parent company EchoStar, according to The Washington Post. Marketed to low-income customers, Boost is one of the United States’ largest budget-friendly cellular companies, and a deal with SpaceX could result in Musk “gaining access to its network, which it leases from AT&T and T-Mobile,” said the Post. Such access would “allow Musk to make a play for a U.S. wireless market that equity research firm MoffettNathanson estimates is worth $235 billion.”

Musk’s Boost venture comes after he approached AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon about “buying capacity on their networks,” said TechCrunch. All three carriers declined. Together, these companies have about 100 million subscribers, far more than Boost. While the “acquisition would give SpaceX an immediate bump in subscribers,” the “true value of the deal” for the company would be getting “access to terrestrial cellular networks,” or land-based cell communications.

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SpaceX was already making moves in this space. Last year, it “acquired wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar” and “recently purchased a portfolio of low-band spectrum licenses,” said The Verge.

‘Unparalleled ground coverage’

Despite Musk’s status as a controversial figure given his exorbitant wealth and unprecedented government access under Trump, some experts say there could be upsides to this deal. A joining of SpaceX and Boost would “combine SpaceX’s Starlink satellite broadband network with new mobile antennas, fiber connections and other ground infrastructure,” said Bloomberg, possibly bringing about “unparalleled ground coverage that makes wireless dead zones a thing of the past.”

Not everyone is enthusiastic about the deal’s prospects. It would “support Musk’s ambition to turn his business empire into an artificial intelligence powerhouse” by giving him a platform through which to create future tech, said Bloomberg, at a time when anti-AI sentiment has reached a fever pitch. Musk’s “ultimate goal” may not be to “disrupt the well-established and long-entrenched wireless industry” but rather to “create a type of network that will enable future technological breakthroughs.”

Musk may also face challenges in building out the network he desires. SpaceX would “likely ​need to invest heavily in ground infrastructure, customer ​service, handset subsidies and promotions — costly areas of the wireless business where the Big Three already ​have extensive operations,” said Reuters.