Starlink appeals Federal Communication Commission denial of $885 Million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund subsidy

Starlink asked the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider a decision to deny it $885.5 million in rural broadband funding. The company filed what is known as an Application for Review with the FCC, which is an appeal from an aggrieved party that asks the FCC to revisit actions taken on the grounds that they conflict with established statutes, regulations, precedent, or policy or rely on a policy or precedent that should be changed or overturned. The FCC rejected Starlink’s winning bids for broadband subsidies from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, citing Ookla data which showed Starlink’s broadband speeds were below the service benchmark set for its subsidies. However, Starlink accused the FCC of making the decision “in service to a clear bias towards fiber, rather than a merits-based decision to actually connect unserved Americans.” It noted SpaceX has demonstrated an ability to quickly expand and upgrade its satellite network and pointed out that it actually isn’t required to meet RDOF’s speed requirements until 2025. Additionally, Starlink noted that not only will it take time for money from other government initiatives like the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to be allocated to projects in those areas, it wrote, but it will also take time for service providers to finish buildouts there.