SpaceX's plan to compete with the major cellphone service providers is coming into sharper focus — and raising investor concerns about the threat it poses to traditional telecoms.

Driving the news: Shares of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile plunged today after SpaceX announced a deal to acquire a swath of nationwide low-band spectrum from a private investment firm.

• Buying these licenses allows SpaceX's Starlink satellite business to begin reaching areas for mobile service that satellite currently struggles to reach, like the inside of buildings, Axios Pro's Lucinda Shen reports.

The big picture: SpaceX will need a lot more than spectrum to begin offering viable cellphone services in most major American cities.

• Spectrum is basically the airwaves that carry wireless signals.
• But you still need physical infrastructure to transmit and receive those signals to provide wireless coverage.

Friction point: SpaceX has a plan for that, but it's not to spend massive amounts of money building traditional cell towers.

• AT&T CEO John Stankey told Axios last week that SpaceX's plan — to install small cellular base stations alongside Starlink dishes on homes and businesses — would not be enough to become a serious competitor.
• The other major telecom companies, including Verizon and T-Mobile, have also downplayed a threat from Starlink.

📉 Shares of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile closed down 9.8%, 8.8% and 13.3%, respectively, today in the first trading day after the spectrum acquisition.

What's next: SpaceX officials have said they plan to launch their cellphone service business in late 2027.

Go deeper

Soaring jet fuel prices are expected to add $6 billion to Delta Air Lines' fuel bill this year, the company said this morning, Axios' Pete Gannon writes.

• That would be a 60% jump from last year.

⛽️ State of play: Delta's all-in fuel costs averaged $3.61 a gallon in the recent quarter, after pricing in a benefit from the company's own refinery. (Yes, the airline owns a refinery.)

• It expects to pay $4.25 per gallon in the fourth quarter, despite an even larger refinery benefit in the period.
• Bloomberg reported today that general jet fuel prices in New York and Los Angeles were both over $4.90 a gallon, the highest mark since March and April, respectively.

💸 The impact: U.S. airfares were up over 23% in August from a year earlier, according to the latest federal inflation data, as airlines passed soaring fuel costs along to travelers.

🗣️ Go deeper: Delta CEO Ed Bastian told investors this morning that he does believe fuel prices will come down, though he's not sure when. The structural changes in the industry, however — higher fares and reduced routes — may not reverse with them.

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🇷🇺 President Trump said that he reached a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russia to supply more than 4 million tons of diesel to the global market. (Axios)

🛞 Tesla, under pressure from German regulators, changed the brand name in Europe for its "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)," or FSD, systems to "Assisted Driving." (CNBC)

🗣️ What they're saying

"We appreciate and respect Mike Repole's vision, passion and optimism for the future of horse racing, and we welcome his significant investment in Churchill Downs Inc."

Italian wineries will be locking their doors tonight, Pete writes.

• 🍷 A team of thieves managed to make off with 30,000 bottles of wine from the warehouse of Marchesi Antinori, a family-owned winery in Cortona, according to reports.
• 💰 The haul is worth around $5.5 million.

Zoom in: The heist was reportedly carried out last weekend out by a gang of at least seven masked individuals, who cut off surveillance cameras and used the company's own forklifts to load two large trucks.

• The winery's insurance policy only covers small thefts, so it's on the hook for about 90% of the loss, NYT reports. But they're holding out hope.

🚛 "Two trucks full of merchandise can't just disappear into thin air," Renzo Cotarella, the winery's chief executive told The Guardian. "The Tuscan roads are full of cameras. Perhaps with a bit of luck we'll be able to recover at least some of the bottles."