What do I write here, today? I want to write more about this AT&T story, just because my head is in that space – where the private network joins the telco grid, in the name of AI, and maybe wraps-in some GPU accelerators, in or near the RAN. That is interesting to me. But we wrote about it yesterday, and there’s a thousand words (linked) below; plus I am starting to sound like a broken record. I do not want to write about Mistral AI or Open AI – just because their stories are all across the daily press, and everyone has an opinion. Instead, we should take a look at this Deutsche Telekom release, out today – that it is bringing satellite broadband into the telco mix in deliberate fashion. But really, Deutsche Telekom is the support act here. This passage is about Starlink – its new partner in satellite telecoms. 

In truth, everyone has a line of Starlink, too. But RCR feels like it might be time to reflect – given Starlink’s interest in this telco sphere, and how its owner’s hyperscale ambitions in space change the telco dynamics, and the whole tech world. Let us consider: Starlink has grown from nothing – zero services – in 2021 to 10 million subscribers in 160 countries in early 2026. It has a constellation of 10,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit. It has stronghold deals in the government, maritime, and aviation sectors. Its annual revenues are about $20 billion, which makes it the biggest satellite ISP in the galaxy, by a distance – and a little smaller than Telstra, a little bigger than Swisscom.

Or, to stretch the comparison: about twice the size of Telenor, and about a sixth as big as a tier-one aristocrat like Deutsche Telekom, with which it is now working (alongside the likes of Vodacom, BT, VMO2, Proximus, VEON, and any national carrier with blackspots and not-spots in their rural broadband network). But it is way bigger than any telco side-hustle – twice the biggest telco B2B takings, much more than any IoT/M2M concern (including private networks). And Starlink has reached some kind of maturity in just five years, of course – versus 30 years, plus, for old terrestrial providers. Its success lies in its vertical integration (rockets, satellites, terminals) and regulatory advantages (first-mover spectrum rights, broad national/international licenses, state contracts and access).

In the main, it is a complement to mobile telcos. Starlink is offering direct-to-’consumer’ (D2C) fixed broadband (conceptually FWA), mostly to remote enterprises. It is a developing line in direct-to-device (D2D) mobile broadband, of course – which is where the existential fear starts to take hold for telcos, and where start-up AST SpaceMobile has most deals (with AT&T, Orange, Verizon, Vodafone, others). The deal with Deutsche Telekom is just another deal; but the German firm is one of the big integrated carriers – fixed, mobile; consumer, enterprise – and its engagement reflects that telcos are willing to embed third-party hyperscale satellite – globally licensed, vertically integrated, commercially versatile – as part of their mainstream portfolios, and not just as parochial add‑ons. 

It means space-based broadband is part of the establishment, and will challenge parochial providers to evolve or die. The sky is not the limit, anymore; it’s increasingly the battleground. LEO D2D won’t replace terrestrial mobile just because satellites can’t keep up in terms of capacity, latency, efficiency, and cost – especially for dense urban coverage. But it offers an increasingly easy solution for rural, remote, and emergency connectivity – and there is a planet full of opportunities out there, which might accumulate enough over time for Starlink, say, to match a big national telco like Deutsche Telekom for subscriber and revenue numbers.