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US agency will not reinstate $900M subsidy for Starlink

reuters.com

341–350 of 773 posts

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

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically now 15/16th of the money goes into a void to never actually get service to anyone.

no, it will be awarded to other applicants instead.

Not necessarily. This round of grants is closed. There is no guarantee that this money will be rolled into the next round. In fact, that seems quite unlikely to me.

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

#342

When applying for RDOF you say what service tier you are targeting and instead of shooting for the minimum 25/3, Starlink applied for 100/20. When they didn't reach those speeds[1], they were ineligible but not just because they didn't hit the required speeds on their existing network. There are more details here[2] but the jist is that Starlink bid to supply 100/20 internet to over half a million subscribers and the…

I find it impressive that the government is actually punishing a project for running late and underdelivering. They should expand this to all parts of the government. Can you imagine if the F-35 was cancelled the first time it fell behind schedule? The Space Launch System? The Littoral Combat System? The USS JFK? So many boondoggles could be killed off before they spend money. Maybe contractors would have to start pr…

The FCC didn't even give Starlink a chance to run late or underdeliver, they assessed the program and capability and decided it wasn't where they wanted to spend grant money. So they aren't being punished, they are being passed over for a better option.

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

#343
post #38

When applying for RDOF you say what service tier you are targeting and instead of shooting for the minimum 25/3, Starlink applied for 100/20. When they didn't reach those speeds[1], they were ineligible but not just because they didn't hit the required speeds on their existing network. There are more details here[2] but the jist is that Starlink bid to supply 100/20 internet to over half a million subscribers and the…

Starlink (and Musk in general) have been over-promising and under-delivering for years now. Starlink claimed 150Mbps back in 2020 and that speeds would double to 300Mbps by the end of 2021.[1] Instead, speeds have halved.[2] At this point, T-Mobile is likely serving more rural high speed internet customers with greater speeds (T-Mobile has 4.2M home internet customers and Ookla's stats show 34% to be rural for 1.4M;…

Starlink also just launched in earnest a couple years ago, and is experiencing meteoric growth rates of ~100% a year.

It doesn't take very many doublings for this comment to go down with "why would anyone want Dropbox."

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

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair FSD is the hardest software problem that man has ever attempted.

I watched a panel discussion on self driving cars in 2015 with several legit experts in the technology (I believe Sebastian Thrun was one of them). There were also some CEOs. The experts all said there’s no way the tech would deploy before 2025, potentially later. The CEOs were saying 2018 or 2019. The experts had a clear view way back then, the CEOs just don’t want to listen.

Experts are wrong all the time. The experts said that solar prices would come down but were off by nearly an order of magnitude in how long it took.

With something this hard it's extremely tough to tell for sure when it will happen and often progress goes in chunks where it seems like it's going to happen but then doesnt.

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

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather the federal government just roll out fiber and not put Starlink and Elon in a position of power. That fiber will always be in the ground and available. Elon has shown himself to be unworthy of any position where trust and good judgement is required. If it costs more, that is a premium worth paying. Fool me once. https://www.internetforall.gov/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...…

>just roll out fiber As if this were a trivial task

This is in comparison to launching satellites into space. I think most people would agree it's probably more along the lines of "trivial" when compared to that.

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

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was not the terms, there were buildout requirements attached that started when the bid was accepted. https://www.usac.org/high-cost/funds/rural-digital-opportuni... Looks like Starlink was supposed to be 40% built with their participation starting in 2020, that are consistent with their winning bid (in this case 100/20). It seems they clearly failed by that metric.

Starlink hasn't gotten any money, so they aren't subject to build requirements

Yeah I messed that up. After reading more the denial was focused on the fact that Starlink didn't refute they were not consistently delivering speeds and latency that matched the tier they bid on, and their plan to bridge that gap wasn't convincing to the reviewers or the Commission.

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

#348
post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s cheap and easy to fill the night sky with satellites, the obvious implication is that it will also be cheap and easy to do astronomy from space, and your “extremely precious and expensive” telescope time could be on a satellite outside the atmosphere in the first place. This is an entirely transitory issue and instead of trying to deprive people of internet access, astronomers should be working together on la…

> obvious implication is that it will also be cheap and easy to do astronomy from space That's so beyond false it's difficult to even respond to. Do you understand the size of the telescopes, both optical and radio? Do you understand the complexity of space-based instruments like the James Webb and Hubble telescopes?

[dead]

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

#349
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An FCC commissioner indicates that the FCC is yoinking the award because it thinks SpaceX won't hit the 2025 targets, yet many other award recipients have no service and no rollout and no speeds to even measure: > What good is an agreement to build out service by 2025 if the FCC can, on a whim, hold you to it in 2022 instead? In 2022, many RDOF recipients had deployed no service at any speed to any location at all, a…

They also revoked LTD Broadband's award

LTD broadband couldn't raise cash

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

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon “over promise and under deliver” Musk FSD is coming any day now right?

you can try it out in any post-2018 Tesla with the option package.

You mean you can BETA test this in a life or death situation and put non-consenting individuals at risk because you want to flex your toy right? It’s demonstrably dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed on public roads.
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