Orange, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica have entered preliminary discussions on forming a consortium that would bid jointly for Europe's harmonised 2 GHz MSS band, according to a Bloomberg report, in a move aimed at keeping US satellite operators out of spectrum earmarked for direct-to-device (D2D) services.

No final decision has been made, and none of the four operators has commented publicly. The talks, first reported by Bloomberg, are at an early stage, and the structure of any joint vehicle remains undefined.

An operator consortium would not be without precedent. In July, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon launched a joint venture in the US to tackle rural coverage "dead zones" by "pooling limited spectrum resources" and pursuing satellite-based D2D connectivity.

The Commission's three-block plan

The regulatory backdrop gives the talks urgency. In May, the European Commission announced it would run a beauty contest for the 2 GHz MSS band "with a minor financial element", awarding frequencies based on the quality and innovation of tenders and the extent to which proposed spectrum use would benefit competition.

The Commission wants the band split into three 10 MHz blocks: one third reserved for governmental users with integration into the EU's Iris² satellite communications project, one third for D2D or commercial use by an EU company, and one third for D2D or IoT use by an EU or non-EU company. A European MNO consortium could pursue both blocks it qualifies for, but would face US satellite companies eager to use the band for D2D in the third.

SpaceX has spent recent months attacking what it sees as exclusionary EU measures. "By prioritising an operator's country of incorporation above economic, technical, and regulatory realities, the proposal creates a significant likelihood that Europeans will be left without direct-to-device satellite service or new European operations will create global interference problems, including to emergency services like those in Ukraine," the company wrote in its June response to the proposal.

The dispute now reaches beyond Brussels. The US Federal Communications Commission has begun invoking "reciprocity", arguing that if it judges US industry to be unfairly excluded by European regulators, it could respond with economic or regulatory measures of its own — language that points towards a potential transatlantic spectrum conflict.

Existing ties to US satellite firms

The European credentials of the four operators do not translate into independence from US satellite partners. Two months before the Commission's announcement, Deutsche Telekom agreed a partnership with SpaceX to launch D2D across 10 European countries in early 2028, and in August 2026 it launched a Starlink service for business customers.

Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile went further in March 2025, creating SatCo, a Luxembourg-based joint venture that aims to "exclusively distribute AST SpaceMobile's satellite services to European MNOs under a single turnkey agreement".

Amit Nagpal, partner at Aetha Consulting, argues these arrangements raise strategic questions about "kill switches" linked to US control over satellite networks, and how much leverage that would hand Washington over Europe. "I think having some sort of European solution is probably a good thing," he says. "And with the amount of money involved and what is required to do this, the stronger the backers of that solution must be."

Alliances with satellite operators remain a necessity, he notes, because the MNOs will need access to launch capabilities. "If all the operators are willing to invest, obviously they still have to put satellites up… they're not going to suddenly do this themselves." If SES were to join the consortium, Nagpal adds, that would be the "solution that has the strongest chance against SpaceX", given the "huge advantage" of its resources and existing satellites.

Competition and litigation risks

Not everyone views an MNO alliance favourably. Richard Haas, consultant at LS telcom, believes "serious regulatory concerns" surround the proposal. "I think the European Commission is likely to have competition concerns that will naturally arise when the biggest and most profitable mobile operators in Europe team up," he said.

Haas argues the satellite D2D market needs more genuine competition because "SpaceX is cannibalising the industry before it can even take off", and suggests regulators may need to be "more permissive" on satellite mergers to achieve it.

On the award itself, Nagpal expects Starlink still likely to win a third of the spectrum, describing the process as a "halfway measure". "I do think it's hard to see how they would beat it; some sort of joint venture, a European venture, probably has the best chance against something like Starlink," he says.

"Europe's nightmare is that this all consolidates into one or two big US players with kill switches, so you can see why Europe is pushing hard," he adds. "It has got to catch up with SpaceX; that is the challenge."

The hybrid format — a beauty contest with a financial component — carries its own risks. "Unfortunately, one of the reasons we moved away from beauty contests to auctions in the world of mobile spectrum is because regulators kept getting sued," Nagpal says. "Given how contentious this is, given how important it has been, you might end up with litigation… this could be a very messy process that lasts several years."