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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reaffirmed a decision to reject Starlink as an eligible recipient of broadband deployment subsidies from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, citing Starlink’s “failure to meet the program requirements.”
The FCC has reaffirmed a prior decision to reject Starlink’s application to receive public support through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program.
The decision was announced by the FCC in the form of a statement, released Dec. 12, which accompanied the release of an Order on Review that resulted in a decision to uphold the denial of Starlink’s application.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s statements were included in the FCC’s recent announcement. She said the FCC “followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant had failed to meet its burden to be entitled to nearly $900 million in universal service funds for almost a decade.”
The original decision to deny Starlink’s application was made by the Wireline Bureau in August 2022. At the time, Rosenworcel said Starlink’s technology “has real promise,” but she raised concerns as well.
“The question before us was whether to publicly subsidize (Starlink’s) still developing technology for consumer broadband—which requires that users purchase a $600 dish—with nearly $900 million in universal service funds until 2032,” she previously said in August 2022, according to an FCC announcement about Starlink’s original denial.
Starlink, which formally goes by the name Space Exploration Technologies Corp., had won $885,509,638.40 in initial auction results in December 2020 before being denied, according to the FCC.
The FCC’s recent announcement explained the process for selecting eligible applicants for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program.
“If applicants receive a winning bid, the process is followed by an in-depth, long-form application used to verify that applicants meet the program requirements based on the specific coverage locations,” the FCC’s Dec. 12 announcement stated. “The agency qualified Starlink at the short form stage, but at the long form stage, the Commission determined that Starlink failed to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service.”
Starlink has marketed their services as high-speed internet that can reach subscribers, “no matter how remote,” thanks to satellites operated in low-Earth orbit that can deliver broadband, according to the company’s website.
