Starlink’s latest beef with BEAD: What you need to know

States are showing fiber is still king in their plans for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program—much to the dismay of Starlink. Starlink’s parent company SpaceX, which expected the lion’s share of BEAD money once the Trump administration axed the program’s fiber preference, has filed complaints against Louisiana and Virginia for awarding most of their funds to wireline providers. The company urged the states to re-evaluate, or it will ask NTIA to reject their final proposals. Both Louisiana and Virginia intend to dole out roughly 80% of BEAD money to fiber broadband providers, 9-10% to low earth orbit (LEO) satellite with the remaining funds going to cable and fixed wireless access (FWA). SpaceX is poised to receive a total of over $10 million ($7.7 million from LA and $3.2 million in VA) from the two states to cover underserved locations with satellite. But it claims Louisiana and Virginia violated the new BEAD rules with how they’ve interpreted the definition of a “priority broadband project.” “Virginia indicates in the Final Proposal that it determined that 95%+ of SpaceX’s initial application did not qualify [as] ‘Priority Broadband,’” SpaceX wrote. “To date, Virginia has not provided SpaceX with any information, rationale, or justification to support this determination, and has not published any studies or technical requirements used to evaluate SpaceX’s application.” As for Louisiana, SpaceX said the state “did not engage in a single technical discussion” with the company and alleged the broadband office’s guidelines intentionally excluded fixed wireless and LEO providers from winning more funds. Gigi Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband (AAPB), finds SpaceX’s argument that it should have won more BEAD locations “absurd.”