What Do We Know About LEO BEAD Bids?

Low Earth Orbit satellite internet service providers, like Starlink and (eventually) Amazon’s Kuiper, are poised to win big in the restructured Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program. That’s because the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s new policy notice, released June 6, makes two major changes that benefit LEO technologies. Specifically, the policy notice: 1) Removes BEAD’s preference for end-to-end fiber networks; and 2) Directs states to give preference to ISPs that request the least amount of BEAD funding in their bids. LEO (and fixed wireless) networks are less expensive to build than wired networks like fiber, cable, or DSL, so these changes effectively give Starlink (and Kuiper) a major advantage in the BEAD bidding process. However, just days after the policy notice was released, a report from Ookla found that only 17.4 percent of U.S. Starlink users receive service that meets BEAD’s minimum speed requirements 100/20 Mbps). By contrast, fiber networks, without question, meet BEAD’s requirements for speed, reliability, latency, and scalability for decades to come (in addition to more affordable service for customers). This raises questions about LEO's ability to fully participate in BEAD. In any event, LEO providers need only to submit applications that request less support than their competitors. So, what do we know about LEO bids?