FCC cancels Starlink's $886 million grant from Ajit Pai's mismanaged auction

[Ohio Joe]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected Starlink's application to receive $885.51 million in broadband funding, essentially canceling a grant awarded by the FCC during then-Chairman Ajit Pai's tenure.

Starlink was tentatively awarded the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) grant in December 2020. But the satellite provider still needed FCC approval of a long-form application to receive the money, which is intended for areas with little or no high-speed broadband access.

We wrote about potential problems with the SpaceX grant a week after the FCC's reverse auction, in which ISPs bid on grants organized by census blocks. Consumer advocacy group Free Press accused Pai of "subsidiz[ing] broadband for the rich," pointing out that Starlink was awarded money in urban areas including locations at or adjacent to major airports.

Today, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's FCC announced that it rejected the long-form applications from both Starlink and LTD Broadband. The FCC said that both Starlink and LTD "failed to meet program requirements," submitted "risky proposals," and that their "applications failed to demonstrate that the providers could deliver the promised service."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/08/fcc-rejects-starlinks-886-million-grant-says-spacex-proposal-too-risky/

Ajit Pai's giveaway to Musk should not have happened, it was yet another right-wing scam from the start. Glad it's done now.

[orthoclad]

1. Not only is Starlink another Musk scam,

but it's another assertion that the Muskigarch owns our sky.

Astronomers have complained from the beginning that this cloud of satellites are ruining their timed images with bright streaks.

Musk has a long history of polluting the sky, exemplified by his Sun-orbital car holding his dummy proxy of his ego. He could have used some of that vast lifting power to put at least some science package into space; instead he had a car, a camera, and a dummy, so he can fantasize about being the SpaceMan god. It took enough fuel to heat a town for a winter for that little exercise in ego.

Scumbag.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. The FCC, under Ajit Pai, worked for corporations instead of us.

This happens every time there's a Republican in the White House -- the agencies that were created to protect us are warped to benefit corporations.