Elon Musk’s SpaceX was recently denied a bid for $885.5 million in aid through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund by the FCC. The subsidy was to support Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet, but the agency said Musk’s company “failed to demonstrate” that it could fulfill its promises.
Engadget reports that Starlink, the satellite internet company operated by Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX, was recently denied a bid for $885.5 million in aid through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund by the FCC. The FCC said that the broadband provider “failed to demonstrate” that it could deliver the services it claimed.
Elon Musk strikes a SpaceX pose (pool/Getty)
Jessica Rosenworcel, the chair of the FCC, said that Starlink had “real promise” but said that the agency could not justify 10 years of subsidies for “developing technology,” that requires users to own a $600 satellite dish. She noted that the FCC was working to make the most of “scarce” funding for broadband expansion.
In December 2020, SpaceX won its bid for subsidies through an auction. The company said that it would use the subsidies to serve 35 locations and promised prices in line with terrestrial broadband and that it would meet “periodic” service buildout requirements.
LTD broadband, a fixed wireless provider, received over $1.3 billion in that auction but lost another bid this week. The FCC said that the company was not “reasonably capable” of deploying the internet services it promised after losing qualifying statuses in seven states.
SpaceX’s FCC subsidy denial is not necessarily a major blow to the company’s plans, but it appears that Elon Musk’s long-running method of financing private companies with government subsidies may not continue to work as well as it has in the past.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.