SpaceX wants revisions to federal rural grant program that has awarded it $733 million
SpaceX is presently asking for changes in the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that awards grants to companies that provide internet in rural areas and has already awarded the company $733 million in grants.
BEAD was part of the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure act – originally a $42 billion program to bring broadband internet to areas of the country with little or no broadband access. The Trump administration eliminated other infrastructure act programs, and cut BEAD outlays to $21 billion, along with rule changes to allow satellite providers.
SpaceX applied for BEAD funds in 2025. The company won $733 million worth of BEAD projects nationwide, including $109 million in Texas.
Initially the Biden administration awarded SpaceX almost a billion dollar grant, because its Starlink constellation was the only broadband outlet actually doing the job. Then Musk began to campaign for Republicans, and suddenly the Biden administration pulled that grant, saying absurdly that SpaceX was failing to provide its service to rural areas, when that was exactly what it was doing.
Now SpaceX wants BEAD to ease some of its requirements, and wants these grant funds upfront.
I say, this whole BEAD program is a waste of taxpayer money and a perfect example of crony capitalism. I’m glad Trump cut it in half, but that wasn’t good enough. It should be shut down entirely. SpaceX doesn’t need this handout. It is making money hand-over-fist on its own.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX is presently asking for changes in the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that awards grants to companies that provide internet in rural areas and has already awarded the company $733 million in grants.
BEAD was part of the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure act – originally a $42 billion program to bring broadband internet to areas of the country with little or no broadband access. The Trump administration eliminated other infrastructure act programs, and cut BEAD outlays to $21 billion, along with rule changes to allow satellite providers.
SpaceX applied for BEAD funds in 2025. The company won $733 million worth of BEAD projects nationwide, including $109 million in Texas.
Initially the Biden administration awarded SpaceX almost a billion dollar grant, because its Starlink constellation was the only broadband outlet actually doing the job. Then Musk began to campaign for Republicans, and suddenly the Biden administration pulled that grant, saying absurdly that SpaceX was failing to provide its service to rural areas, when that was exactly what it was doing.
Now SpaceX wants BEAD to ease some of its requirements, and wants these grant funds upfront.
I say, this whole BEAD program is a waste of taxpayer money and a perfect example of crony capitalism. I’m glad Trump cut it in half, but that wasn’t good enough. It should be shut down entirely. SpaceX doesn’t need this handout. It is making money hand-over-fist on its own.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Robert,
it’s millions not billions…
jburn: I fixed it less than ten minutes ago. Thank you though.
It’s so hard to keep track of millions, billions, and trillions in government waste, fraud, and abuse; but the opening paragraph is millions.
Some napkin math says at $50/month for a basic plan – that buys 244k people internet for half a decade. If we do the full $21 billion… nevermind.
Thanks uncle samtaclaus!!! The people need wifi for $1200 phones and $3000 TVs and it’s a constitutional right.
There have been so many efforts to provide communications to rural areas for so long you would think that every square inch of the country would be covered by now.
There’s a missing word in the second-to-last sentence, I think it should be need.
Given the expansion of Starlink, Leo gradually getting into orbit, and ongoing investments on the surface, I agree, the government should end the program. As much as I’d like SpaceX to get more revenue, I’d also rather the taxpayers keep their hard-earned money. SpaceX will thrive without it.
Nate P: Thank you. “Need” added.
I don’t begrudge Elon having the money. The program was offered (good or bad) and he was shut out…so this can be seen as redress.
This money will likely go to rocketry…and he may need every dime to get something as complex as Starship to work….
He may get far more money from IPOs….but you can’t trust shareholders to have vision.
You can argue about whether the program should have been launched or not—but if a program is set up…and work provided–you follow through.
Jeff Wright. SpaceX doesn’t need the money to finish Starship. They earn far more from Starlink already.
Re: following through. Not necessarily. Not all programs are worth it, and throwing good money after bad only wastes more than if you stopped and tried something else. The sunk cost fallacy is real, and sometimes it’s better to cut one’s losses.
Up here in AK, rural broadband is a continuing example of conservative grift not unlike public education is for the left. Bush Alaska covers a lot of square miles with not a lot of people, so any physical connection (fiber is the most recently popular solution). The congressional delegation (generally 2-3 Republicans) is forever getting federal $$$ to supply that broadband, pandering to both the native population and the tech companies up here that install and operate it. Broadband $$$ is then laundered into various future political campaigns as individual donations which in turn gets more congressional authorizations, the funding loop the unions and democrats figured out years ago. While the legislature plays in this, the biggest players are the congressional delegation, with Lisa Murkowski being the worst in recent years.
Problem is that fiber is not structurally robust. It is installed just offshore on the North Slope to serve everything from the Prudhoe Bay oil patch to Barrow. The shelf is wide and shallow, so pack ice on the Arctic Ocean regularly scours the bottom, breaking the fiber for months until it can be repaired late summer. Over the last 5 years this has happened at least twice. Solution has been for the companies to bring in Starlink terminals which are more reliable and cheaper even with the subsidized costs.
Starlink is cheap and robust enough they don’t need any more authorizations for the program. SpaceX should be congratulated for pushing the issue, which should result in the program being cancelled, ultimately damaging its competitors. I think of this as a bank shot. Cheers –
I noticed in my area that Starlink is now being offered for 80 bucks a month with no hardware upfront purchase. We are not rural.
My cable internet price dropped 20 bucks a month to 90 dollars right after starlink announced its new pricing.
Cable systems are dying. The upkeep of all those wires are killing it. Infrastructure costs.
To Nate P
Elon was blocked from access—that’s the point here….and the money from the program goes to his projects that you don’t consider sunk costs.
Petra rock boring can allow fiber tunnels to be more robust….something that could resist a Carrington Event repeat. That’s worthy in its own right.
Jeff Wright: it doesn’t matter if I don’t think they’re sunk costs. End it regardless. Waste doesn’t suddenly become not-waste just because I like a company.
This program dates back to a time – not all that long ago – when the only Internet alternative in most rural areas was via geosync comsats with massive latencies and uplink and downlink speeds not much superior to a dial-up modem. Low-latency, high-bandwidth Internet required either some form of wired connection or cellphone-type wireless connection. Building surface infrastructure that had to cover a lot of ground to serve very few customers was expensive and the subsidies were supposed to more or less equalize rates between dwellers in the sticks and their city mice cousins. Providers of ground-based connectivity collected a lot of subsidies but frequently provided little or no actual service coverage.
Then Starlink happened. The cost to SpaceX of delivering Starlink service to a given customer is completely independent of their Earthly physical location – it’s the same for everyone. The users who are the furthest out in the back of beyond get the best service because there are the fewest fellow subscribers nearby with whom the bandwidth of the closest satellite has to be shared. It’s the inverse of ground-based infrastructure.
The basic economics of Starlink are completely different from those of providers who have to obtain rights-of-way and build and maintain physical ground infrastructure, be that cabling of whatever type or cell towers.
As there is now Starlink and – at some point – there will be Amazon Leo, the ruralistas are covered at reasonable cost and without necessary subsidy. The subsidy program should, therefore, indeed by done away with. But, as others have noted here, the program has been a slough of corruption and political backscratching since its inception. So killing it will be the usual uphill slog against entrenched interests. So it goes.
Does SpaceX deserve some of the goodies? Arguably, yes, especially as the Biden regime did that preposterous Lucy-with-the-football thing. But SpaceX would likely fare as well or better, long-term, if the subsidies were either phased out or simply terminated, full stop.
I fully agree that the whole program should be ended.
Its all that is keeping a few old school satellite systems running. Like Hughesnet. and Viasat.