SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
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Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#2 SpaceX has been awarded $885.51 million by the Federal Communications Commission to provide Starlink broadband to 642,925 rural homes and businesses in 35 states.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#3SpaceX has been awarded $885.51 million by the Federal Communications Commission to provide Starlink broadband to 642,925 rural homes and businesses in 35 states. That's $1376.52 in subsidies per customer
My initial reaction agrees that does sound quite high.
However, I wonder what the alternative strategy costs for rural broadband are. My guess is that laying a lot of cable to remote locations could possibly be even higher than the $1376.52 per customer cost? It seems like something like Satelite internet connections could be less to set up, but it's not clear to me the cost of the equipment, installations and upkeep are in that case?
Also 1376 / 12 months averages out to only about $110 per month per customer for just one year. Which honestly doesn't sound too bad.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#4For the curious.
> The 35 states where SpaceX won FCC funding are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#5SpaceX has been awarded $885.51 million by the Federal Communications Commission to provide Starlink broadband to 642,925 rural homes and businesses in 35 states. That's $1376.52 in subsidies per customer
It is also over 10 years... so maybe a set of free equipment and $8 off a month?
Note: a traditional cable company got more than $1B is subsidies, so maybe the distributed model is actually cheaper. Depends on replacement costs and lifecycle (in both cases).
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#6SpaceX has been awarded $885.51 million by the Federal Communications Commission to provide Starlink broadband to 642,925 rural homes and businesses in 35 states. That's $1376.52 in subsidies per customer
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Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#7This headline is only part of the story, looks like ~10 ISP's were awarded sizable subsidies.
While i am not a fan of subsidies in general, the ISP space is particularly tricky for free-market forces to ensure competition. The capital requirements are overwhelming in many cases for a traditional startups, leaving the only other option as local/municipal votes, which have been successful in some areas.
Long-term, i could see internet access to receive utility status in the states. Until that happens, funding ISP competition, particularly in rural areas feels like a wise move.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#8SpaceX has been awarded $885.51 million by the Federal Communications Commission to provide Starlink broadband to 642,925 rural homes and businesses in 35 states. That's $1376.52 in subsidies per customer
That's $11.47 per month, per customer. Slightly over 10% of current pricing.
> Funding is distributed over 10 years, so SpaceX's haul will amount to a little over $88.5 million per year.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#9If there is any corporate entity I'd happy giving public funding, it would be SpaceX. Their end goal is to settle Mars and potentially other bodies in the solar system. Compared with the absurd amounts of money wasted on defense contractors, I am perfectly happy with funding SpaceX in every way possible.
Re: SpaceX gets $886M from FCC to subsidize Starlink in 35 states
#10SpaceX has been awarded $885.51 million by the Federal Communications Commission to provide Starlink broadband to 642,925 rural homes and businesses in 35 states. That's $1376.52 in subsidies per customer
The beta terminal cost is $500, and beta service is $100/month (at up to ~150 Mbps or so right now?). So the money would cover the terminal cost to those customers and then full freight 8 months of service at current pricing. Alternatively/in addition, and more similarly to traditional in-ground service, it may also simply help fun actual infrastructure in the form of more/faster deployment of ground stations and sats. SpaceX may also (and it seems likely) have more standard service tiers for full general release, so something at 25 Mbps for $25/month say, and then working their way up. If they use this money to cover the minimum tier and then let people choose to pay the difference for more if they desired, then that'd bump the coverage to close to 3 years.
For the level of service they're offering that seems pretty reasonable honestly, and a much more efficient use of dollars than typical efforts (though WISPs might do even better in certain areas, they have different trade offs). Since it appears how the companies make use of the money is fairly flexible SpaceX will probably deploy it towards a few different metrics. The $500 upfront capex is probably the biggest impediment for a lot of people so getting that down is important, but if internally they had any issues with getting their sat shells filled out that'd be a good upfront usage too.
This is also spread out over 10 years, so where the most bang for buck is delivered will probably vary over time, by 2025 let alone 2030 SpaceX's economics will certainly look quite different with Starship deployment and filled shells/done ground stations.