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Could a home internet partnership be on the horizon?
Eli Blumenthal
Senior Editor
Eli Blumenthal is a senior editor at CNET with a particular focus on covering the latest in the ever-changing worlds of telecom and streaming. He previously worked as a technology reporter at USA Today.
T-Mobile and SpaceX are doing something on Thursday, though what exactly remains to be seen. The companies announced that they will be hosting a joint event from SpaceX’s Starbase by Brownsville, Texas, tomorrow night.
The event, which will be livestreamed on SpaceX’s website and YouTube page at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 5 p.m. PT), is being billed by T-Mobile as a “chat” between T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and SpaceX head Elon Musk about “their joint mission and how they’re working together to make it a reality.”
In a tweet, SpaceX says the announcement will be about “plans to increase connectivity.”
Tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. CT, Elon and @TMobile’s Mike Sievert will announce plans to increase connectivity. Tune in to watch live → https://t.co/pxgvgTWzrx
What exactly is that mission remains a bit murky, though one potential partnership could be around home internet. Both companies have been working to grow their respective presences in that space, with T-Mobile touting its 5G-based Home Internet offering and SpaceX pushing its Starlink satellite-based service.
A partnership in this arena could potentially give T-Mobile the ability to offer better service to rural areas further away from its cell towers, with backend connectivity provided by SpaceX.
But given the unpredictability of both companies — Musk in particular — the news could span a number of different areas.
Whatever it is, we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out.
