Commissioner Carr Criticizes Agency's Abrupt Reversal Of $885 Million Infrastructure Award To Elon Musk's Starlink

I was surprised to find out by an FCC press release that agency leadership had suddenly reversed course on an $885 million infrastructure award that Elon Musk’s Starlink won in 2020 to provide high-speed Internet service to unconnected Americans. The agency’s decision here mirrors the Administration’s broader set of infrastructure missteps by costing taxpayer dollars while leaving rural communities behind. First, the FCC’s announcement claims that the agency is acting to ‘avoid extensive delays in providing needed service to rural areas.’ Yet that is exactly the outcome that this decision ensures. Second, the agency decision casts aspersion on the Starlink system in turning heel on the Commission’s 2020 award—calling the technology “risky” and “still developing.” But those arguments do not bear out. Third, the agency cites Starlink’s price point in denying it this universal service award. Yet right now, the FCC is providing universal service awards for far slower Internet services that cost consumers far more. Fourth, this agency decision will hit taxpayers in their pocketbooks. To the extent the federal government ever makes another commitment to serve these communities, it will cost us orders of magnitude more money to do so.