FCC cancels Starlink's $886 million grant from Ajit Pai's mismanaged
auction
FCC: "Nascent" Starlink tech has capacity limits, may not deliver
required speed.
Starlink was tentatively awarded the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
(RDOF) grant in December 2020. But the satellite provider still needed
FCC approval of a long-form application to receive the money, which is
intended for areas with little or no high-speed broadband access.
We wrote about potential problems with the SpaceX grant a week after
the FCC's reverse auction, in which ISPs bid on grants organized by
census blocks. Consumer advocacy group Free Press accused Pai of
"subsidiz[ing] broadband for the rich," pointing out that Starlink was
awarded money in urban areas including locations at or adjacent to
major airports.
Today, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's FCC announced that it rejected
the long-form applications from both Starlink and LTD Broadband. The
FCC said that both Starlink and LTD "failed to meet program
requirements," submitted "risky proposals," and that their
"applications failed to demonstrate that the providers could deliver
the promised service."
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/08/fcc-rejects-starlinks-886-million-grant-says-spacex-proposal-too-risky/
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