- Wall Street Journal sources say NTIA will eliminate BEAD’s preference for fiber
- This change will probably give a boost to Elon Musk’s Starlink service
- The whole thing makes me sad because I feel like fiber is the best long-term technology
I hope you don’t mind the night sky littered with thousands of circling satellites, because it looks like Elon Musk’s Starlink service is going to get a big boost from the U.S. government.
According to a scoop from the Wall Street Journal, the Commerce Department’s new leader Howard Lutnick plans to eliminate the preference for fiber under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. Rather, BEAD will switch to a “technology neutral” stance.
This means that states can award more BEAD funds to satellite-internet providers like Starlink, as well as to more fixed wireless access (FWA) providers, rather than mainly to companies that lay fiber-optic cables.
Personally, I think it will be a shame to squander this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reach as many homes as possible with fiber via the $42.5 billion in BEAD funds. Fiber offers the best technology to deliver the highest broadband speeds, and it’s generally more reliable than wireless or satellite, which can be interrupted by weather.
In my opinion, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is under the Commerce Department, has worked really hard for the past three years to set out reasonable rules for BEAD technologies.
Right before President Trump’s inauguration in January, NTIA unveiled its final guidance on BEAD technologies. NTIA kept its preference for fiber, but in cases where it’s prohibitively expensive to deploy fiber, states have the option to give grants for the use of low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband or FWA, using either licensed or unlicensed spectrum.
Under the BEAD program’s original rules, Starlink was expected to get up to $4.1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal’s sources. With Lutnick’s changes, Starlink could receive $10 billion to $20 billion, the sources said.
Elon Musk is already the richest man in the world. But now, it looks like taxpayer dollars might give his pocketbook an extra boost.
It also smells kind of fishy that Musk has such a chummy relationship with Trump and is now set to personally benefit from the government’s BEAD program changes.
Space junk
I think the thing that offends me most about all of this is the prospect of more space junk. Starlink already has more than 7,000 satellites orbiting Earth. It will undoubtedly need to deploy thousands more satellites if states award a lot of BEAD grants to Starlink.
Nothing like camping out on a beautiful summer night and looking up at all the satellite trains.
Humans have already made a huge mess of Planet Earth, with our pollution, excessive concrete and ugly industrial blights. And now, we just can’t wait to pollute the space around our planet as well.
The former Federal Communications Chair Jessica Rosenworcel was concerned about space junk. But I don’t think the current “drill baby drill” administration considers the environment that they leave our grandchildren.
Industry perspectives
Each broadband technology has its supporters, of course.
David Zumwalt, CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Service Provider’s Association (WISPA), which represents FWA providers, told Fierce in an email that WISPA believes the new leadership at NTIA should make changes to BEAD and bring it back in line with the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), which created the program.
“Many WISPA members are incorporating fiber optic technologies in their networks where it makes sound business and engineering sense to do so,” said Zumwalt. “But there is nothing in the IIJA that required NTIA to deem any particular type of broadband deployment technology to be a priority.”
Zumwalt also expressed concern that BEAD-funded fiber might overbuild FWA networks, which already deliver 10/20 Mbps broadband.
Conversely, the CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association Gary Bolton is obviously a big champion of fiber broadband. He says if the U.S. was able to string electricity to almost every household in the early part of the last century, surely we’re capable of bringing fiber broadband to rural households, now.
Speaking last summer at an industry event, Bolton said it would be a big “cop out” if the BEAD program left the most difficult-to-reach locations to satellite broadband. He also noted that Starlink satellites have a short lifespan of about five years. And the vision for BEAD is to close the digital divide for the long term.
For its part, SpaceX’s Starlink just launched its “Residential Lite” service in 15 U.S. states. Residential Lite costs $80 per month, compared to the $120 per month for its regular residential plan. Residential Lite offers speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps, compared to the standard plan, which offers 150-250 Mbps speeds.
In addition to its relatively high monthly cost, Starlink also requires a satellite dish that costs several hundred dollars.
But as the Wall Street Journal noted, Starlink has gained a loyal following because it works in areas where fiber service isn’t available.
Op-eds from industry experts, analysts or our editorial staff are opinion pieces that do not represent the opinions of Fierce Network.
