Elon Musk's Starlink poses a growing threat to BT, Vodafone and Europe's telecoms giants as it plots a move into mobile

Elon Musk once insisted Starlink was 'not some huge threat to the telcos'. Now SpaceX is paying about $19.6bn for EchoStar spectrum and roughly $8bn for Grain Management's 800 MHz portfolio. The deals will create Starlink Mobile, which aims to become a major US carrier by the end of next year. T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T shares slid before the selling reached British operators.

Starlink has just 100,000 UK customers, against more than 8 million at BT.

European telecoms firms are taking on Starlink after an internet slowdown in Ukraine.