No surprise here. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
Elon Musk has voiced concerns that radicals within the Biden administration might attempt to ‘weaponize’ federal agencies against his businesses, citing his move to make X a ‘free speech’ social media platform. This concern was underscored in a decision by the US Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday to withhold approximately $900 million in rural broadband subsidies from SpaceX’s satellite internet unit, Starlink.
The FCC “reaffirmed” its initial decision from last year to deny SpaceX the $886 million in federal funding because it could not demonstrate program requirements, such as high-speed internet, for users in 35 states:
“After careful review, we find that the [Wireline Competition] Bureau followed Commission guidance and correctly concluded that Starlink is not reasonably capable of offering the required high-speed, low latency service throughout the areas where it won auction support,” the FCC said in a 3-2 ruling.
For SpaceX to receive funding from the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), it must deliver average download speeds of over 100Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps to rural America by December 2025. One year ago, the FCC denied funding over Starlink’s strained satellite capacity.
“The FCC followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant had failed to meet its burden,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel said.
