SpaceX just fired off one of the biggest shots yet in the spectrum wars, agreeing to pay $17 billion to take over a massive chunk of wireless airwaves from EchoStar for Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell services.

The deal is the most aggressive signal yet that SpaceX wants to rule the satellite-to-phone market.

The significance of the sale, which sees SpaceX paying a mix of $8.5 billion in cash and $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock, centers around a finite resource: spectrum. Spectrum refers to the range of radio frequencies that carry wireless signals for everything from phone calls to texts to GPS and satellite communications.

The U.S. government, via the Federal Communications Commission, divides spectrum into “bands.” There are only so many usable frequencies, and users must coordinate to avoi

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