Free Starlink dish and 100 Mbps downloads trump fiber in federal subsidy push to cover rural areas

[Redaktion]

The SpaceX undertaking of Elon Musk is winning the federal government's Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program allocation with its offer of free Starlink Standard Kit. A recent change in broadband service definitions for rural areas paved the way for Starlink's federal subsidy success.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Free-Starlink-dish-and-100-Mbps-downloads-trump-fiber-in-federal-subsidy-push-to-cover-rural-areas.1101366.0.html

[CurtisDouglas]

Government funding for rural areas?.?🧐
Starlink charges $1,000 new service fee do to high demand in North Idaho!!!
Can't get more rural than here🤷�♂️ sorry that's not affordable and local internet services are absolutely terrible!

[A]

Government funding for rural areas?.?🧐
Starlink charges $1,000 new service fee do to high demand in North Idaho!!!
Can't get more rural than here🤷�♂️ sorry that's not affordable and local internet services are absolutely terrible!

BEAD is a federal program that gives billions to states for rural broadband. Now it is up to each state to set up their own plans. Looking at idaho's website for bead it says final proposal will be 9.25.25, so wait a month and see what discounts will be offered in idaho.

[Frasta]

How on earth any american purchases any goods or services from a company belonging to Elon, the person that help an Authoritarian into power, if i was terminally ill and Musk had the cure, i'll prefer to die.

[A]

How on earth any american purchases any goods or services from a company belonging to Elon, the person that help an Authoritarian into power, if i was terminally ill and Musk had the cure, i'll prefer to die.

That is quite a naive take, pretty much everything in your house likely is linked somehow with an authoritarian regime.

Most people including you and me don't think about where the products you buy come from and what it took to make them. People just buy stuff that works for them without putting much thought into it. Until maybe the media singles out a single person/company and puts it in people's faces and they pretend to care.

[L Gladding jr]

I feel those of us that paid over $800 for the equipment should get some kind of credit back..

[Theguy]

Starlink isn't as reliable as fiber and it has certain limitations. I've had the service for years and it's pretty good, but fiber is far superior. It's too bad the govt is going this direction.

[A]

Starlink isn't as reliable as fiber and it has certain limitations. I've had the service for years and it's pretty good, but fiber is far superior. It's too bad the govt is going this direction.

The problem is cost, a single rural house can easily cost over 20k to hook up to fiber. Not to mention fiber can take decades to build out, where as satellite access can be given next day.

To be more specific, the state didn't just pick starlink, they also picked multiple fiber companies too and split the funds totaling 227 million.

If you actually read the article it says for example Spectrum got 80 million, and that will cover 14% of users. Starlink got 53 million to cover 43% of users.

So starlink is covering over 3x users at almost half price.