The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US has announced not to award Elon Musk’s Starlink nearly $900 million subsidy for expanding broadband service in rural areas, based on its failure to meet the basic programme requirements.
The ‘Universal Service Fund’ programme, which uses funding collected from consumers, sought to expand access to broadband networks in rural areas.
“The FCC followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant (Starlink) had failed to meet its burden to be entitled to nearly $900 million in universal service funds for almost a decade, ” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
The agency qualified Starlink at the short-form stage, but at the long-form stage, the Commission determined that Starlink failed to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service.
“Funding these vast proposed networks would not be the best use of limited Universal Service Fund dollars to bring broadband to unserved areas across the US, ” the Commission noted.
And more details from Broadband Communities…
The FCC has reaffirmed a prior decision to reject Starlink’s application to receive public support through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program.
The decision was announced by the FCC in the form of a statement, released Dec. 12, which accompanied the release of an Order on Review that resulted in a decision to uphold the denial of Starlink’s application.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s statements were included in the FCC’s recent announcement. She said the FCC “followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant had failed to meet its burden to be entitled to nearly $900 million in universal service funds for almost a decade.”
The original decision to deny Starlink’s application was made by the Wireline Bureau in August 2022. At the time, Rosenworcel said Starlink’s technology “has real promise,” but she raised concerns as well.
“The question before us was whether to publicly subsidize (Starlink’s) still developing technology for consumer broadband—which requires that users purchase a $600 dish—with nearly $900 million in universal service funds until 2032,” she previously said in August 2022, according to an FCC announcement about Starlink’s original denial.