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US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

reuters.com

151–160 of 773 posts

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#151
post #75
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being incredibly optimistic. Show me a non-greedy person in Congress, with the exception of Thomas Massie, and I'll believe you that change is possible.

>Show me a non-greedy person in Congress, with the exception of Thomas Massie, and I'll believe you that change is possible. "They're all bad except the one I agree with."

I actually disagree with him on plenty, but he consistently doesn't play the game and votes on principle, hence why he's widely hated.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#152
post #84
post #63

Starlink service is so obviously phenomenal to anyone who's used it, this isn't going to change that or effect SpaceX's success one bit. The FCC's actions here are just embarrassing their agency by exposing their petty ineptitude and harming whomever this program was supposed to help.

[flagged]

> a private company that has failed to meet its agreed upon targets?

Starlink hasn't failed to meet any agreed upon targets. The agreed upon targets are for 2025.

Starlink is currently providing service that is below those targets, but has several more years to meet them. Meanwhile, other recipients haven't delivered any service yet.

> Otherwise we will just have broadband 2.0, with Comcast & co getting billions in subsidies and not doing even a fraction of the necessary work.

Who do you think the other recipients are?

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#154
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're being incredibly optimistic. Show me a non-greedy person in Congress, with the exception of Thomas Massie, and I'll believe you that change is possible.

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/ https://www.wyden.senate.gov/ https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/ https://foster.house.gov/ https://frost.house.gov/ Hope is in short supply, but not at empty yet. Make sure to vote every election. 1.8M voters over the age of 55 die every year in the US, and 4M voters age into voting at 18. Demographics are inevitable. As I tell the young folks, Hold Fast. https://www.pewresearch.org/sho…

Oh, I see. I agree that these are people who deeply embody the Democratic ethos, and Bernie is one of the poorer members of the Senate. I seriously dislike Fetterman's "working class" act, though.

However, considering that they hate me, I will pass.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok, so that still cuts down the amount of launches by 4x which takes them from 1055 launches to 260 launches. Over 2 years that would require doubling Starlink's launch cadence which is a lot, but does seem plausible.

So to make the 2025 deadline they would have had to perfectly launch more rockets than they ever have before...sounds like the FCC made the correct choice.

SpaceX has done that every year since 2020. In 2020 they had 26 successful Falcon 9/Heavy launches, 31 in 2021, 61 in 2022, and 91 to date in 2023.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one else is even close to being able to offer 100/20M rural service.

That's the point of the subsidy: to make the equivalent of fiber runs to rural areas (and presumably local WISPs) cost-effective. The main intent of the subsidy was not to subsidize the development of new, uncertain technologies. Musk still managed to slide in and loot a few billion dollars before they realized that Starlink can't meet their definition of "broadband." No other satellite internet could either.

Starlink is basically a WISP with an actually scalable business model, just the towers (and soon a lot of the backhaul) are up in space.

WISPs rely on a local enthusiastic person to make it work.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#157
post #62

If the goal is to get levels of performance that Starlink cannot provide, then this makes sense? Odd that they'd include comments about Starship in it, though. That doesn't seem like a requirement for continued development of Starlink and seems very speculative. There could be details on that aspect that I'm missing though.

I feel like it's a fair decision, they had certain criteria. Even so, more broadband competition in rural areas would be better than subsidizing the incumbents.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This was basically stated[1] by one of the (dissenting) FCC commissioners, so not exactly unfounded. [1] https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-23-105A3.pdf

It's good for you to provide the link. The problem is that people will follow the link and read it.

It says, paraphrasing, "The commission's reasoning is attractive, but doesn't hold water. Why are we requiring Space X to meet its 2025 deadline three years earlier. The arguments are thin, and I'm appalled by the situation."

Nowhere does the opinion mention, allude to, imply, or call out whatever you think it does.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#159
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really see how it's embarrassing that the FCC set out a clear requirement for a low-latency, 100/20M rural service and Starlink (having failed to show a plan to achieve that) is not accepted into the program. Which part is embarrassing to the FCC, exactly?

Their goals are only 100/20mbps? I'd say that part is embarrassing. Given the amount of money involved, I'd have expected them to push for higher than that.

100/20 average is spectacular for those living in the US boonies. And they're the target.

No one else comes even close. You can't run fiber there, can't mount towers everywhere.

Re: US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

#160
post #99
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and that makes sense if the competitors have proven approaches to meeting the requirements. While I expect Starlink to be able to improve, I can see their point that the outcome is far from certain.

The government shouldn’t give out billion dollar participation trophies. There’s a set of metrics to meet. Starlink is moving the wrong way against those metrics. As such, they’ll need to succeed unaided in the marketplace, instead of getting a government handout.

Perhaps not billion dollar, but shouldn’t it give some participation trophies? How else to entice innovation in certain areas, especially when the interest rates are killing small tech outfits.
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