US rural broadband shift opens door wider for Starlink

The Trump administration has released new rules for distributing $42.5 billion in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, easing restrictions on Starlink and other satellite providers competing for support under the program. The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said June 6 it will now apply a technology-neutral approach in awarding subgrants under BEAD. Armand Musey, a space industry analyst and founder of advisory firm Summit Ridge Group, said the tech-neutrality reform provision should help SpaceX’s Starlink, the satellite operator with the most to gain. “However, it’s not clear how eagerly it will be embraced at the state and local level,” he added, “where there is often a bias towards job creation, where fiber has more to offer.” SpaceX was provisionally awarded nearly $900 million in rural broadband subsidies toward the end of the first Trump administration in 2020, under the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). However, the FCC said in 2022 that SpaceX failed to demonstrate how it would meet RDOF requirements, and upheld the denial in 2023 after an appeal.