Someone understandable but, maybe what they should do is figure out a way to have like one starlink system and then have it shared by an entire community.
This in no way has anything to do with who runs Starlink.
Somebody didn’t pay the right kickback to the right people.
They are hitting 2 enemies. Musk and rural voters. They have weaponize the FCC now too.
Just punishing Elon Musk for criticism of the leftist agenda.
100% political retribution against Musk.
I am fine with government subsidies ending for nearly everything in the private market, including this.
That doe snot change my opinion that this is absolutely nothing more than a politically motived hit on Musk and an attempt to do harm to him.
Is someone else getting the contract or are rural folks SOL?
so now they don’t want broadband for everyone ?
Um ... Starlink will work in rural areas ANYWAYS, so ... this is all about yanking money away?
Useful life of 5 years. $120/yr. $10/mo.
It ain’t REALLY about the money.
Other modes use what is akin to high-powered Wi-Fi, and THAT requires an antenna of some cost.
Musk just raised $7 Billion by selling Tesla stock just last week.
I doubt he is going to lose any sleep over this.
Should rescind the whole stinking program and the FCC. The program is a waste of taxpayer money.
Commercial providers are providing at a competitive cost. We will soon have three in our area in addition to phone based broadband. Two providers are line of sight in a hill area and one is the local coop that is installing fiber direct to the home. The latter is a foolish waste that will be wrecked when the next big ice storm hits.
This whole gooberment rural broad band has been going on since obarky first claimed he was going to make it happen, nothing happened. Since then there have been all sorts of gooberment initiatives to get rural broadband. I have not seen any fruit from any of these as usual.
Gooberment just effs things up and spends more money than God and wastes about all of it.
Musk said the other day that the next launch would put Starlink at having global coverage(where allowed) and that launch was successful. Now he just needs more customers. Meanwhile, he’s worth how much? A billion isn’t much for him.
“” the agency questioned subsidizing a service that required its customer to purchase a $600 satellite dish for access “”
If they’re that worried about it, send poor people $600 to be used for a dish. Fedgov seems to like that number anyway.
Meanwhile, a new Dollar General just went in near me and they put a new cell tower right behind it which I’m sure fedgov pitched in for. Been up 3 weeks now but I still don’t have a cell signal at home and it’s close enough to where it should give me near all bars. Unless it’s strictly 5G as my phone is only 4G. Seems like it would have both. Maybe they just don’t have it configured yet.
Local phone company is slowly but surely running fiber optic but waiting for a federal grant to run it the 20 miles to town. I’m paying $70/mth right now for the second fastest DLS speed they have. When they finally get fiber optic done, it will be $70 for the first 12 months and $100 thereafter in which case I might just buy a Starlink dish. I’d own the equipment and be able to take it with me and set it up anywhere.
So between the new cell tower which was likely paid for in part by fedgov and the fiber optic going in that I know is being paid for in part by fedgov, I’m sure it’s costing well over $600 per person since I’m rural and there’s a low population per square mile here.
Musk is no longer a full liberal and is hurting twitter and may still end up buying it. That’s the real reason for this.
“...scarce universal service dollars...”
That is lefty-speak for sure.
As opposed to what other kinds of dollars?
Maybe they should deploy the words “endangered”, or “debunked”, or “illegitimate”.
Don’t get me wrong; I think these universal service fees are just more wealth transfers. Socialism by a fancier name.
Meh. Starlink is going to max out on paying subscribers anyway. They probably are better off not getting the shackles that come along with this program.
WTF ???
Our communist masters will not put up with anyone that does not fall in line with the Aamerican people and adhere to the three government commandments (as clearly specified in the current interpretation of the Constitution):
Bow down!... Obey!... Snitch!...
The price for leaving the reservation.
The Biden Junta is punishing Musk.
$60 billion to corrupt Ukraine...
Zip to the people in the USA that could use internet service.
They’re going to steal the satellites from Musk.