An FCC commissioner says the agency made a mistake in canceling $886 million in funding for SpaceX's Starlink, arguing that the decision risks leaving many rural residents without access to high-speed internet.
Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr says he was "surprised" by the decision, which, "constitutes clear error and plainly exceeds agency authority," he argues.
“The FCC’s 2020 award to Starlink secured a commitment for the delivery of high-speed Internet service to 642,925 unserved rural homes and businesses across 35 states. By reversing course, the FCC has just chosen to vaporize that commitment and replace it with...nothing,” Carr claims. “That’s a decision to leave families waiting on the wrong side of the digital divide when we have the technology to get them high-speed service today.”
In 2020, the FCC tentatively awarded $886 million to Starlink as part of a federal program to bring high-speed internet to rural areas across the US. The program’s goal is to supply Gigabit internet speeds to over 85% of the selected rural locations and at least 100Mbps download speeds for all 99.7% of the locations in the coming years.
But earlier this month, the FCC announced it was withdrawing funding for Starlink because its popularity has resulted in network congestion.
“We cannot afford to subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said after the commission denied SpaceX's long-form application for the subsidies.
Specifically, the FCC called Starlink a “nascent” satellite internet technology that has “recognized capacity constraints” in delivering consistent high speeds to users. In addition, the regulator cited data from Ookla’s speedtest.net that shows existing Starlink speeds “have been declining from the last quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022.”
However, Carr says it’s wrong to describe Starlink as a risky or still developing technology. He points out the same Ookla data shows Starlink speeds have increased on a year-over-year basis for users in the US. In addition, he notes the speeds are expected to improve over time as SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites into orbit.
“Particularly given the speeds Starlink is already offering and the pace with which it is continuing to launch satellites, the FCC’s decision offers no reasoned basis for determining that Starlink was incapable of meeting its regulatory obligations,” he says, later adding: “In the end, this action reads as an untimely and improper effort to revisit the full Commission’s 2020 decision to allow satellite providers to compete for awards, rather than the limited review authorized.”
The FCC also had concerns about Starlink's high cost. Chairwoman Rosenworcel specifically cited how consumers have to pay $599 for the Starlink dish hardware. However, Carr says the FCC is already supplying subsidies to other costly satellite internet services that lag behind Starlink in broadband quality.
“Right now, the FCC is providing universal service awards for far slower Internet services that cost consumers far more,” he says. “Indeed, when I learned about the FCC’s decision while on a work trip to Napakiak, Alaska, I heard from residents there and in surrounding villages that are paying hundreds of dollars every single month for services supported by the FCC’s universal service awards that deliver speeds less than 1/10th of Starlink’s."
The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the commission is still slated to supply $9 billion in funding to support other high-speed broadband projects across rural America. The subsidies meant for Starlink would have covered many areas in the US, where the satellite internet service is already available for order.
Disclosure: Ookla is owned by PCMag parent company Ziff Davis.