President Biden’s slow rollout of a $42.5 billion rural internet program has increased criticism of the administration’s decision to yank federal funding from Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband service, which proponents say could provide faster, cheaper internet access to areas with little or no connectivity.
Mr. Musk criticized the federal program in response to a Washington Times report detailing the yearslong process of administering the massive tranche of funds and connecting homes to the internet.
“Your tax dollars for nothing,” Mr. Musk posted on his social media site, X.
The Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, or BEAD, has not connected a single rural home to high-speed internet service since Mr. Biden signed the funding into law in November 2021.
At the current pace of distributing the funds, high-speed internet connections to most of the rural areas intended to benefit from BEAD won’t be completed until 2030. The Commerce Department, which is in charge of the program, said none of the projects will begin until 2025 or 2026.
Mr. Musk’s SpaceX is excluded from the BEAD federal subsidies because the money is reserved for companies deploying fiber-optic cable, which the government views as a more proven technology than satellite connections.
During the Trump administration, SpaceX was on track to receive $885.5 million from a different federal program to provide internet to rural locations. The Democratic-led Federal Communications Commission canceled the SpaceX award in August 2022.
The money, administered under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, would have helped SpaceX use Starlink, a constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit, to provide high-speed internet service to 640,000 rural locations in 35 states.
When it rescinded the funds, the FCC cited questions about Starlink’s internet speed and “the uncertain nature” of SpaceX’s Starship launches.
Some have blamed the cancellation on the Biden administration’s apparent disdain for Mr. Musk, who has been critical of the president using his perch on X, formerly Twitter.
The Biden administration has launched investigations into Mr. Musk and his business. In November 2022, Mr. Biden said Mr. Musk’s “technical relationships” with other countries are “worthy of being looked at.” When asked for details, the president told reporters, “There are a lot of ways” to investigate Mr. Musk.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican appointee, said the commission’s revocation of the Starlink subsidies “certainly fits the Biden administration’s pattern of regulatory harassment” of Mr. Musk.
SpaceX, meanwhile, has been successfully deploying low-orbit satellites that the company said will continue to broaden the availability and increase the speed of Starlink internet.
SpaceX launched 20 Starlink satellites from California on June 18. The company said more than 6,000 satellites are now operational in the Starlink “megaconstellation.”
Homes can be hooked up quickly with a receiver that provides internet with download speeds of 25 to 220 Mbps, or megabits per second, the company said.
BEAD limits federal subsidies to companies that will install high-speed internet with fiber-optic cable, which provides consistently faster speeds, up to 1,000 Mbps, and is considered more reliable.
Installing fiber-optic cable is far more costly, however, and takes much longer to deploy, particularly in rural areas without internet service. Cost estimates for laying fiber-optic cable range from more than $12 per foot in rural areas with soft ground to $20 per foot — which is $105,600 per mile — in rocky terrain.
Mr. Carr said Starlink was on track to install the infrastructure for high-speed internet much faster and at a lower cost by using government subsidies.
Mr. Carr said SpaceX could connect rural areas at a cost of $1,377 per location. The federal subsidies would have added ground stations and reserved the satellite capacity needed to provide service to the targeted rural areas.
BEAD awarded $82 million in January to North Carolina to connect 16,000 rural homes to the internet via fiber-optic cable, which amounts to more than $5,000 per home.
“For $42 billion they could have bought Starlink dishes for 140 million people,” influential technology blogger Scott Woods posted on X.
None of the federal funding is intended to pay for monthly service or home equipment, although Commerce Department officials are demanding that BEAD funding recipients provide low-cost options for consumers.
Starlink for homes requires the purchase of a satellite dish and Wi-Fi router kit, which costs $299 to $599, depending on location. The lowest-cost plan is $120 per month for download speeds of 20 to 100 Mbps and unlimited data. Fiber internet costs about $50 per month, with higher costs for unlimited data.
The biggest difference may be the wait. Many rural areas won’t connect to high-speed internet for years under Mr. Biden’s BEAD program, but Starlink offers same-day delivery of its installation equipment, which can be set up in a couple of hours.
Mr. Musk appealed the decision to revoke Starlink’s federal subsidies, but the FCC said the company did not prove it could provide internet speeds of at least 100 Mbps.
In a letter this year to House lawmakers who questioned the withdrawal of the funding, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel cited multiple reasons, including Starlink’s high startup and monthly costs for rural consumers.
Ms. Rosenworcel said Starlink also refused to remove urban areas, including Newark International Airport and the Chicago Loop, from its funding bid.
“Starlink continues to make its service available to consumers, and nothing in the Commission’s decision on Starlink’s application prevents consumers from choosing Starlink if it meets their needs,” Ms. Rosenworcel wrote.
SpaceX, which reports more than 1.3 million Starlink subscribers in the U.S., did not respond to a media inquiry.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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