ViaSat Urges FCC Not to Approve SpaceX for Any Rural Digital Opportunity Funding

ViaSat sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission urging the Commission not to approve any Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding for ViaSat’s satellite broadband competitor SpaceX. SpaceX is in the process of deploying thousands of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide broadband service with lower latency in comparison with the geostationary satellite broadband service that ViaSat offers. SpaceX was one of the biggest winners in the RDOF auction and was tentatively awarded $885 million to cover some of the costs of providing broadband to unserved rural areas. Citing a previous ViaSat FCC filing, the new ViaSat letter argues that SpaceX does not have sufficient capacity to meet its RDOF requirements, even if its total capacity is used for RDOF. ViaSat isn’t the only entity questioning SpaceX’s RDOF win. A report commissioned by NTCA—The Rural Broadband Association and Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) also questions whether SpaceX has enough capacity to meet its RDOF service requirements. FBA also questions whether the RDOF program should be funding technology with a lifespan of only five years.