The five-member FCC, led by Democrat-appointed chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, rejected SpaceX Starlink for a rural broadband program. The FCC claimed Starlink failed to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service (100 megabits download and 20 megabit upload).
Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr dissented with the decision and said that President Biden gave federal agencies a greenlight to go after Musk after the billionaire bought Twitter for $44 billion last year.
Another GOP Commissioner, Nathan Simington, concurred with Carr’s take, arguing that his FCC colleagues had improperly held SpaceX to 2025 performance benchmarks three years ahead of time. The FCC’s rejection of subsidies “certainly fits the Biden Administration’s pattern of regulatory harassment.”
SpaceX Starlink Coverage Map – Dark Blue Waiting List
Underserved Rural Areas Coverage Map – Red Underserved
Xfinity Cable Coverage Map – Red No Service
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Program
The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) is a program from the FCC that provides funding for the construction and operation of broadband networks in rural communities. The RDOF’s Phase I Auction ended on November 25, 2020, and awarded $9.2 billion to 180 winning bidders.
The winners include:
Incumbent telephone companies
Cable operators
Electric cooperatives
Satellite operators
Fixed wireless providers
The RDOF’s support recipients must:
Offer at least one voice and one broadband service
Meet the relevant service requirements
Offer these services to all locations within the awarded area
The exact deployment schedule is determined by the carriers themselves, not the FCC.
Phase I. These ($16B) funds are exclusively meant to go toward census blocks that are not currently served by any terrestrial broadband provider offering at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.
Department of Justice Harassment of SpaceX
In August, the Justice Department sued SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against refugees and asylees in its hiring practices. SpaceX fired back, arguing the feds’ case is unconstitutional. Space rocket companies have been restricted from hiring non-US citizens. Rockets are listed in ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations_, meaning that you have have to be a U.S. citizen to work in rocket-related companies, and that includes SpaceX. A US-based company with overseas operations is prohibited from sharing ITAR technical data with employees locally hired, unless they gain State Dept.
Companies manufacturing spacecraft and rockets and limit foreign nationals from accessing key information about the vehicles for national security reasons. SpaceX rockets can do even more than interncontinental ballistic missiles.
Tesla Snubbed at 2021 White House EV Summit
In 2021, President Joe Biden celebrated ambitious electric vehicles goals by automakers at the White House for an EV summit. The White House did not invite Tesla which makes about 60% of all EVs sold in the USA.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
As a person living in an underserved rural area I am so thankful for starlink. The service is several times faster than the only wireless tower to tower service I was able to obtain previously. Starlink has been excelent for the rural community.
Just end government subsidies. Period. All this fighting for a piece of the pork-pie allows politicians to pick ‘winners’ based on political connections. (it’s not about what you can do, it’s about who you know!)
Starlink can still compete, it just doesn’t get any taxpayer money to help out a company that is , according to its employee tender offer, worth 180 billion dollars. Its called corporate welfare. I personally don’t want any of my paycheck being diverted to “help out” the richest man in the world!
That being said, under the rules given, Starlink should definitely have qualified for the grant. I would expect some type of legal challenge to the ruling by Space X’s lawyers, if it’s possible. They were successful in 2014 (when Joe Biden was not president) in suing the Air Force over the non-compete contract for ULA. Their ongoing 2019 lawsuit (also filed when Joe Biden was not president) over ULA launch contracts may also be successful. I don’t think any of the denials of recognition for Tesla’s or Space X’s accomplishments by Democratic leaders are rooted in Elon’s purchase of Twitter, but come solely from his anti-union stance. Space X has had legitimate disagreements with the government’s contracting systems since 2014. This latest one is more of the same.
My prediction is that Space X / Starlink will sue, if its possible, and win. Hurray, they get part of everyone’s paycheck!
Starlink can’t really complain too much. Ookla and other broadband speed measuring services say Starlink is below 100mbps down/30mbps up on average, and the requirements for that speed indicated what percentile of regions need to be at that speed. Any medium density cells will not get the required speed for a long time on a consistent and non-time invariant basis, as the constellation is primarily populated by lesser versions of the satellites. As older sats get replaced, the speed average gets lumpier as a given region sees high and low speed satellites passing over.
But, if Starlink is actually getting measured here, then I think some of the other RDOF participants should be rechecked with a fine toothed comb as well. Fair is fair, and I definitely don’t think the incumbents are hitting that mark either.
The deadline for providing those speeds is not for another 3 years, though!
If you live in a rural area, ask hard questions to your electric cooperative.
Many are investing in rural broadband. Those investments will fail. Coops must ensure that the losses from broadband being beaten by starlink don’t cause electricity prices to increase.
It’s not possible to get powerful and not be involved with politics.
Gee, Bezzos marriage dissolved because he was the target of a Russian spying scandal.
The harassment happens to both sides.
Back before his personal politics where better known, he was treated like the friggin messiah by the Left and Democrats.
The sycophantic adulation and articles were endless
My how times, and tunes, have changed.
Come on, Brian, don’t tell me you’re surprised. And they’re still at it and won’t stop. He’d better be careful, they won’t stop at nothing including assassination.
It truly is remarkable how thoroughly tarnished politics in this country have depleted the competitive sector players of their right-to-compete. I used to think that being a public company offered open-ended opportunities. I no longer think so. And … if this is yet another example of how maligned The Administration is, just consider how stultified the European experiment has become. … pandering ultimately backfires. See any alternate conclusion?
This sits squarely at one end of the ideological spectrum, and it’s easy to see who: those wanting to control the mores, the discourse and the platforms to be more amenable to their liking, by placing rules and regulations making anything else than their own ideas, unthinkable or at least, unutterable.
Last week I explained to my son why when governments have the chance to choose between prosperity and control they will choose control.