ANALYSIS — SpaceX's spectrum deal still leaves it far from rivaling telecom giants

SpaceX agrees to buy Grain's nationwide 800 MHz portfolio for about $8 billion, a source says Portfolio includes up to 14 MHz of paired spectrum and needs FCC approval TD Cowen estimates nationwide terrestrial network would cost more than $80 billion By Harshita Mary Varghese Oct 16 (Reuters) — SpaceX called its recent multibillion-dollar purchase of US airwaves a critical step towards building a mobile network, but constructing a true rival to major American carriers will require a terrestrial network and likely years of work and billions more. Starlink became a money maker by offering internet service in rural and sparsely populated areas, where it faced little competition, as well as changing to easy-to-set-up home packages at a competitive price. Mobile will be harder. Cities are particularly tough places for mobile telephony and are technologically challenging for mobile-to-satellite connections. The rocket and satellite company will likely need to invest heavily in ground infrastructure, customer service, handset subsidies and promotions — costly parts of the wireless business in which AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile already have extensive operations. Building a network would cost