Chairwoman Rosenworcel’s Response to Members of Congress Regarding Starlink’s Application for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

On January 10, a group of lawmakers wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to express concern about the FCC's decision to revoke SpaceX’s Starlink 2020 Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) award. In her February 6 response, Chairwoman Rosenworcel explained that RDOF featured a two-part application process, and that in the second phase of the process, winning bidders from the first phase were required to share technical and financial information with the FCC. "On the basis of this review, the Commission determined that Starlink and a dozen other winning bidders did not qualify for RDOF funding because they failed to meet program requirements. Among other things, our technical review demonstrated that Starlink had difficulty meeting the basic uplink and downlink speed standards for the program ... Furthermore, our review indicated that in more than 6,501 census blocks where Starlink sought support from the RDOF program were not unserved rural households, but actually parking lots, traffic medians, and locations that already have service like the Chicago Loop and Newark International Airport. When we requested that Starlink no longer seek funding for these locations, the company refused."