Three ways to pursue profits from satellite bandwidth are available to investors seeking exposure to the future of space-based communications.
I personally participated in a trial just months ago with my mobile phone services provider to use a combination of satellite and traditional mobile services. My service was good during that time, with no outages, but I am unsure of a personal need for satellite connectivity in my communications, so I passed up a chance to subscribe to a combined service using both technologies.
There likely will be many more people who who will be testing and subscribing to combine satellite based services and terrestrial broadband communications in the future. That will be especially true after the recent sale of satellite spectrum by Englewood, Colorado-based EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS) to privately held SpaceX, led by its billionaire Chief Executive Officer and Chief Designer Elon Musk.
Elon Musk
SpaceX is acquiring EchoStar spectrum licenses for $19.6 billion, including an initial $17 billion in September 2025, split between up to $8.5 billion in cash and $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock, plus funding of about $2 billion in interest payments on EchoStar’s debt. A separate deal in November 2025 involved SpaceX paying $2.6 billion for additional EchoStar spectrum licenses by using the acquirer’s stock. EchoStar now holds about $11 billion in SpaceX stock.
Not to be overlooked is Dallas-based AT&T (NYSE: T), a “top-ranked pick” by Citi Research, announcing on Aug. 26 that it agreed to purchase 50 MHz of nationwide, low-band and mid-band spectrum from EchoStar for roughly $23 billion to cover virtually every market in the United States. AT&T’s share price rose to $25.18 by the close on Tuesday, Nov. 11, rising 35 cents, or 1.41% for the day, despite the S&P 500 and NASDAQ both falling the same day.
Three Ways to Pursue Profits from Satellite Bandwidth: TSLA
Tesla, rated a market performer by Chicago-based investment firm William Blair equity research analyst Louie DiPalma, wrote in a Nov. 11 research note that the company’s shareholders could take a “sigh of relief” after Musk’s new performance package was approved to keep him at the helm. The shareholder proposal to allow an investment in xAI has been held for further review, but DiPalma indicated he expects it to pass.
Musk outlined 2026 as a year of capacity expansion across all business units, including energy storage. The entrepreneur said he expects that the majority of new power to serve the artificial intelligence (AI) buildout will come from batteries.
“Tesla shares may find new wind at their back following the successful vote; however, the valuation is heavily dependent on robotaxi,” DiPalma wrote. “We feel the risk/reward is fairly valued at these levels, and we will look for incremental data points on the rollout.”
With Musk’s pay package approved with 75% of shareholder voting in favor, DiPalma expressed that the headlines about Musk’s $1 trillion pay package did not seem to be an issue to the research analyst himself.
“A founder owning 25% of a company is not beyond the pale, and we note that Board Chair Robyn Denholm stated Tesla would have pursued a “super-voting” share structure to give ownership without the value, similar to other tech companies, but that option is not available since Tesla is already public.
Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com.
Three Ways to Pursue Profits from Satellite Bandwidth: SpaceX
Even though Space is buying the EchoStar spectrum, investors may want to consider the benefits that Tesla and other parts of the Musk empire could gain from the satellite service. It is worth noting that SpaceX has purchased parts from Tesla in the past, so it would be no surprise for further collaboration between the two companies led by Musk.
The Fast Money Alert trading service co-led by Mark Skousen, PhD, and Jim Woods, currently is recommending Tesla. They both also have recommended it profitably in the past. Skousen also heads the Forecasts & Strategies investment newsletter, while Woods writes the Investing Edge newsletter.
Mark Skousen co-leads Fast Money Alert.
Musk is scheduled to speak at the Baron Capital Investment Conference this Friday in New York City that I plan to attend. Baron Capital is a long-time backer of all of Musk’s companies and its Chairman Ron Baron is likely to ask the entrepreneur a number of questions that could produce instructive answers.
The Baron Funds Conference is Nov. 14.
Rest assured that I will provide a further update about Tesla and Space next in my column next Tuesday. One way to invest in privately held SpaceX is through Baron Capital funds. Baron Capital owns SpaceX through several funds, including the Baron Partners Fund, Baron Focused Growth Fund, Baron Asset Fund and Baron Global Opportunity Fund.
Jim Woods leads Investing Edge and Crypto and Commodities Trader.
Three Ways to Pursue Profits from Satellite Bandwidth: AT&T
AT&T is taking a “more optimistic view” of consumer broadband and an increasingly “conservative stance” on wireless given competitive flare-up should reinforce AT&T’s consolidated multi-year financial growth targets, /Citi Research wrote in a recent research note. Within this context, AT&T should still grow strategic mobile postpaid phones and benefit from an increasing mix of converged customer accounts, the firm opined.
The company is also progressing on its copper decommissioning targets, which should improve financial flexibility to invest in customer acquisition and retention across Mobility, Consumer Wireline and Business Wireline segments, according to Citi Research. We maintain our Buy on T shares as our top-ranked pick.
Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com.
Three Ways to Pursue Profits from Satellite Bandwidth: SATS
A speculative stock to consider is EchoStar, but it comes with heightened risk. EchoStar has been seeking to become a broadband success story for many years, even though many satellite operators have struggled mightily or failed to do so.
Its new CEO also is its founder and Chairman Charlie Ergen, a self-made billionaire who personally used to sell large, backyard satellite dishes to people in rural areas of Colorado and deliver them in the back of a pick-up truck with his wife, Candy, and business partner, Jim DeFranco. Ergen once told me about a time high winds caused a big satellite dish out to fly out of the back of the pick-up truck that he used at the time for deliveries. That is the mark of a man who has learned the business from the ground up, whose assets now include satellites orbiting the Earth.
EchoStar is not without big challenges that include reporting a widened third-quarter operating loss due to reduced revenue and the need to take a charge on its recent sales of spectrum. But EchoStar’s acquisition of SpaceX stock gives it another avenue to profit from more than just its current operations.
EchoStar’s shares fell $2.27, or 3.35%, to close trading on Nov. 11 at $71.28. It offers a comparatively risky way to invest in space, but its Chairman Ergen once told me he loves to play poker. He also speaks with a slight southern drawl and has a knack of surprising those who underestimate him.
Chart courtesy of www.stockcharts.com.
Three Ways to Pursue Profits from Satellite Bandwidth: Geopolitical Risk
Ukraine remains a war zone due to the non-stop aggression of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his empire-building. The nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine is a threat to worsen further if Putin and his comrades in the country’s leadership keep ignoring damage to their nation’s economy and forcing its citizens to fight and die in a war that has produced little but misery for all sides.
Russia’s miliary strikes keep killing children, women and elderly civilians in Ukraine with little apparent regard for human life. The tactic of charging forward to gain a small patches of Ukraine’s territory after Russia’s initial invasion nearly four years ago has been criticized by military strategists around the world. However, calls for a ceasefire, especially from U.S. President Donald Trump, so far have not persuaded Russia’s leaders to stop the war and instead bring it prosperity with new trade agreements.
Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce, Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz. Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulDykewicz.
