- SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell captivated the audience at today’s Mountain Connect conference
- She said SpaceX’s Starlink is very interested in participating in BEAD
- But Starlink has some concerns about the BEAD program rules
MOUNTAIN CONNECT, DENVER — At today’s Mountain Connect conference, one of Elon Musk’s top lieutenants — Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX — regaled the audience with exciting stories about rocket launches, and she also touted SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service as a great way to close the digital divide in hard-to-reach rural locations.
Shotwell also revealed SpaceX was working with National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on some “structural elements” to determine if SpaceX will bid for Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) projects.
Despite Musk’s recent bashing of BEAD, Shotwell said SpaceX is “very interested in participating” in BEAD. And she thinks satellite is going to be a necessary technology to reach the most far-flung places.
“I don’t think the math works without Starlink or basically an LEO provider,” said Shotwell in regard to stretching BEAD funds to reach all unserved locations.
On a curious note, she did express concern about the government taking over ownership of a broadband network if a private company fails to deliver. “I’ve put over $10 billion into Starlink that the government hasn’t paid for. If I participate in BEAD, I don’t want the government to say, ‘I can take over your network,'” she commented but did not elaborate further.
BEAD frustration mounts
Despite what seemed to be support for BEAD from Starlink today, other state broadband officers expressed frustration with the government bureaucracy that’s overseeing BEAD.
Sally Doty, director of Mississippi’s Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility, said she was working on a broadband infrastructure grant with NTIA, and during the process, NTIA told her she needed to fill out a particular form. Doty said she asked, “Where is that form?” And according to Doty, NTIA said, “Oh, we haven’t created it yet.”
The Chief of BroadbandOhio Peter Voderberg said, “There’s a lot of tension back and forth” between the state of Ohio and NTIA. He said states know the realities of broadband in their own states and have data to prove what works and what doesn’t. And it can be frustrating when NTIA says “no” to a request.
But in defense of NTIA, the panelists agreed that NTIA is working just about as fast as any government agency has ever worked.
Veneeth Iyengar, executive director of Louisiana’s ConnectLA, said, “NTIA has had to scale organizationally at the rate that we have to deliver plans in our states. They have to real-time process 50 different state plans and six territories. It’s a lot of work.”
At the same time, the Executive Director of the Colorado Broadband Office Brandy Reitter said, “Our relationship with NTIA has been generally very positive. The NTIA is a federal agency, not designed to move with any sort of quickness. It is inherently slow.”
But Reitter said there are “great people behind the bureaucracy” who have the same goal as state broadband offices. They want universal broadband connectivity. “We have an obligation to taxpayers, as well, that we’re following the rules,” said Reitter. “It takes a little bit of time.”
Jade Piros De Carvalho is the former director of the Kansas Broadband Office who recently joined the open access fiber company Bonfire. He told the crowd, “There are a lot of stakeholders in this process. It’s easy to villainize any one of those. I have great respect for NTIA working in a process of co-creation. They have intense political pressure.”
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