Verizon on SpaceX: Nothing to see here

SpaceX's move to become a viable player in the mobile carrier space has taken a toll on traditional telecom stocks in recent months.

• Verizon chief Dan Schulman today became the latest incumbent to try to quiet the noise, Pete writes.

Driving the news: Asked on the company's earnings call this morning for his thoughts on SpaceX entering the fray, Schulman had a simple message for Musk: Bring it on.

• "We know exactly what they're going to do," he said of SpaceX's satellite business, Starlink. "We know who they're talking to on towers. We know who they're talking to to put terrestrial equipment in place."

• But building a ground-based wireless network capable of competing with Verizon would require tens of thousands of cell sites, along with fiber connections, radio equipment and wireless spectrum, Schulman said.

🗣️ That would take "a minimum of four to six years," and "hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars" to fully build out, he estimated, before ramping up the telecom smack talk.

• "And all of that gets them basically the same network and same capabilities and same cost structure as what we have today," he said.
• 🥊 "And then sometime over the next four, six years, they have the possibility of becoming the sixth — not the fourth, the sixth — competitor in the market. And frankly, at that point, I welcome the opportunity to compete against them."