[DigitalToday Yu Seung-a, intern reporter] Dan Schulman (댄 슐먼), CEO of U.S. telecoms company Verizon, said SpaceX's Starlink could need up to $500 billion (about 660 trillion won) and as long as 8 years to seriously compete with incumbents such as Verizon in the U.S. mobile market.

Business Insider reported on Oct. 26 (local time) that Schulman said on an earnings conference call he would not underestimate Starlink's competitiveness, but that technical and financial barriers remain high before it becomes a meaningful rival in the market.

Schulman praised SpaceX's ability to execute. "Technology and the wireless market environment are changing quickly, and we also need to evolve quickly accordingly," he said. "We are responding on the premise that SpaceX will do everything it says it will do and execute it perfectly," he said.

Verizon believes satellite service alone would not be enough for Starlink to compete in earnest. Schulman said that if SpaceX builds a terrestrial network, "it will ultimately have a similar form and performance to every other network," and added, "we need to take this possibility quite seriously."

Schulman said satellite-based services would struggle to compete with terrestrial networks in suburban and urban areas. "In suburban and urban areas, which account for about 98 percent of our revenue, Starlink's service cannot compete with terrestrial networks," he said. "We are 100 to 1,000 times more efficient than them," he said.

He said building a competitive mobile network in the United States would require large-scale terrestrial infrastructure. Schulman estimated it could require installing up to 80,000 large base stations and linking them to satellites and fiber-optic networks. The overall project could take 6 to 8 years, and building the network itself could take at least 4 to 6 years, he said.

Costs would also be substantial. Schulman estimated project costs could reach as much as $500 billion. He said it would also need operating systems including retail customer service and back-office systems. Once that investment is completed, "it will ultimately have the same kind of network, capabilities and cost structure that we currently have," he said.

News that Starlink secured spectrum has already affected telecoms stocks. Earlier this month, shares of major U.S. mobile carriers fell about 10 percent on news that Starlink secured low-band spectrum suitable for mobile services. Verizon alone recovered some of the decline.

Schulman's remarks also align with recent comments by AT&T CEO John Stankey (존 스탠키). Stankey said, in response to concerns that Starlink's mobile network could threaten the business, "there is no need to overreact to one operator securing low-band spectrum."

The U.S. telecoms industry is wary of Starlink as a potential long-term competitor, while also viewing the level of capital and long buildout period required to reach a standard that can take on existing terrestrial networks as significant.