SpaceX’s Starlink secures more spectrum and airlines as it passes 8 million customers

SpaceX is buying another $2.6 billion worth of wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, an expansion of a $17 billion deal announced in September, as its satellite internet business Starlink continues to win new customers around the world.

The spectrum sale comes just a day after SpaceX revealed it has passed 8 million global customers. On Thursday, the company added more commercial contracts to that total. International Airlines Group announced it will install Starlink inflight internet on more than 500 aircraft across its portfolio, which includes British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus.

The additional EchoStar spectrum will be used to grow Starlink’s nascent “direct to cell” constellation, which initially lets T-Mobile customers access satellite-based 5G internet.

EchoStar started unloading its spectrum licenses earlier this year after pressure from the Federal Communications Commission and the Trump administration. Trump personally told EchoStar’s CEO to sell the licenses, according to Bloomberg.

Its sale to SpaceX in September effectively ended EchoStar’s own plans build a direct-to-device satellite constellation. However, SpaceX hasn’t been the only buyer of EchoStar’s spectrum. In August, company sold $23 billion worth of spectrum licenses to AT&T.

The deal with International Airlines Group will see Starlink added to planes beginning in 2026. The European group will make Starlink available on short-haul, long-haul, and global routes — essentially every plane not slated for retirement, according to a press release.

Starlink has been creeping across the aviation industry the last few years. It started with smaller jets and private planes in 2022, but has quickly racked up big commercial partnerships, with Hawaiian airlines being the first. United Airlines announced a deal to integrate Starlink internet in late 2024 and then accelerated the rollout earlier this year. Qatar Airways outfitted dozens of its wide-body planes with Starlink this year, too.

All of this has helped SpaceX notch more than 8 million customers for Starlink across 150 different countries. That’s up from 6 million in June.