Elon Musk used SpaceX‘s (NASDAQ:SPCX) first earnings call to lay out an aggressive vision for Starlink Mobile, telling analysts the EchoStar (NASDAQ:ECHO) spectrum deal sets up a massive capability jump for direct-to-phone service.

‘100 Times Better’ Network

“We have 65 MHz of bandwidth available to us through the EchoStar spectrum, which gives a massive increase in capability,” Musk said on SpaceX’s conference call.

“Another way to look at it is we will also probably 10x the number of satellites. So simplifying, you could look at the Starlink Mobile leveraging the next-generation satellite and the EchoStar spectrum as being 100 times better — 10 times 10 — than what we’ve got right now.”

Musk added that the upgraded network will support “voice and video calls over Signal and WhatsApp,” and pointed to reliability as a key selling point.

“We will eliminate dead zones, leveraging basically the satellites in orbit. It’ll be better during any sort of natural disaster because, surprisingly, even though space movies make space look super dangerous, it’s a pretty quiescent environment,” he said.

Eyeing the Big Three’s $600 Billion

On the revenue opportunity, Musk sized up the incumbent carriers: “The big three in the United States — AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile — roughly between them, $600 billion a year. And I anticipate us to be able to acquire quite a few of their customers because I think our service will be better.”

Musk said SpaceX will “start to fly the satellites next year” with service launching “end of next year.”

Legacy Carriers Slip

Shares of the carriers Musk name-checked moved lower after hours: AT&T (NYSE:T) slipped 2.75% to $22.74, while Verizon (NYSE:VZ) fell 3.8%, to $45.15, according to Benzinga Pro data.

T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS), which already has a direct-to-cell partnership with SpaceX, was down 2.77% to $172.30.

SpaceX stock was down 8.09% at $115.19 following the conference call Tuesday.

Photo: Shutterstock