After Virginia, SpaceX Also Protests Louisiana's 'Wasteful' Fiber Plans

SpaceX is trying to block Louisiana’s plan to use over $400 million for fiber installations instead of allocating more money for satellite-based services like Starlink. "SpaceX applied to serve virtually all Broadband Equity Access and Deployment households for less than $100 million,” the company wrote in a letter to the Louisiana Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity. The federal BEAD program is distributing $42.5 billion to help US states expand high-speed internet in underserved areas. Louisiana decided to use Starlink for just 10,327 of the 127,000+ locations set to be covered by BEAD funding. Starlink is slated to receive about $7.7 million, or about $750 per location. In its letter, SpaceX says it applied to "serve virtually all" Louisiana locations for less than $100 million. But the state opted for fiber connections "at an average per-location cost of $4,449." “As such, Louisiana’s proposal includes over $400 million...in wasteful and unnecessary taxpayer spending,” the company wrote in the letter. SpaceX protested a similar proposal in Virginia, where Starlink is set to get $3.2 million of that state's $613 million fund.