Despite War of Words, Trump May Funnel Billions to Musk’s Starlink With BEAD Changes

Less than 24 hours after President Trump threatened to Eill contracts from the Elon Musk governmentIts sales service published an opinion This could transfer dozens of billions of dollars in federal funding in Musk Peak link Internet service.

Starlink is expected to receive up to $ 20 billion in money from the capital, access and large -scale deployment program under the new rules – against 4.1 billion dollars which he had to obtain before, according to a broadband Wall Street Journal report Posted in March.

“This is a huge gift to Starlink,” said Cnet Drew Garner, director of politicians at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society. “For me, it looks like another example of Taco Trump to be a few and put the money back. He lets his secretary give billions of Musc dollars on the day of the day, Musk calls for his indictment.”

The pearl program has been promulgated as part of the Investment Act and Infrastructure Jobs in 2021. It is the largest investment that the government has ever made in expanding Internet access – a single money basin that was supposed to offer each American an option for high -speed internet at home.

Critics like to point out that the program has been created for over three years, and no house has been connected by Bead. However, it is largely on the right track with the calendar arranged in the original law. The commercial secretary Howard Lunick has repeatedly cited the need for a faster and cheaper pearl deployment, but the industry observers already told me before the election that a Trump’s victory would move billions of dollars In Starlink pearl money.

A “neutral” approach

Bead was written to prioritize the internet from fiber to rural areas, but the new rules require a “neutral” approach. While the previous rules have given states the room for maneuver to take into account the type of connection on how they have assigned money, the new rules essentially force that money must go to the cheapest tenderer.

“The idea of ​​technological neutrality does not really make much sense in this context,” said Evan Feinman, former director of Bead Who left in March with an e-mail warned of imminent modifications. He added that different types of internet connections “have different performance capacities, they have different costs to work, and they have different reliability characteristics. And they have extremely different speeds”.

Fibers are largely considered to be the gold stallion for Internet connections, and states have massively granted money to pearls to internet fiber suppliers. The exception was in particularly remote areas, where it can be prohibitive to install fibers on a base per house.

“The fiber is great, but our cost estimates show about $ 120 [thousand] at $ 130,000 per location just to connect it with Fiber, “Greg Conte, director of Texas Broadband Development Office, told me in a previous interview In rural areas in western Texas.

Starlink will always have to compete with other Internet suppliers in all these states, and there is no guarantee that they will have the cheapest offers. Feinman also predicted that fixed wireless suppliers without license will benefit a lot from the new rules.

The new rules also eliminate the requirements of the workforce, the environment and the affordability

“Starlink will be an important beneficiary of these changes,” said Feinman. “It’s just not the only thing they do.”

There are a number of other adjustments in the new rules which aim to accelerate the deployment process by removing “regulatory burdens”. The labor requirements used on pearl projects, climate resilience plans and net neutrality protections are all eliminated.

But the one who skipped me the most was what was called the “rescue rule”. Previously, suppliers taking pearl money were necessary to Offer a reduced plan for low -income residents. It is well -understood That the reason for which most people do not have an internet connection is not because it is not available – they simply cannot afford it. It’s been a year since the The affordable connectivity program ended. The federal subsidy provided $ 30 per month to help low -income households pay for Internet services.

The Internet is already more expensive in rural areas – Starlink’s plans start at $ 80 per month, with an initial cost of $ 349 for equipment – and many households may have trouble affecting any connection at their disposal after the construction of Bead is completed.

“Today, Secretary Lutnick has torn the heart from the provisions of affordability in Bead,” said Garner. “It only allows suppliers to self -certify that they offer something affordable.”

Will pearl changes be faster Internet to rural areas?

The high speed of state offices expressed fear and an alarm straight when they discuss the potential changes of pearls so late in the game. In April, a group of 115 States legislators sent an open letter to the Larick Secretary The press not to play with the program.

“The federals broke him and the states have repaired him, and the federals prepare to break him again”, the representative of the state of Missouri, Louis Riggs, republican, said to me at the time. “Why don’t you just leave the United States to decide what it wants to do in terms of technology, instead of putting your thumb on the scale?”

States will have 90 days to comply with new obligations. Many states were already approaching the finish line of their spending plans, and Louisiana, Delaware and Nevada had even received final approvals. Ironically, the effort to rationalize the pearl could end up slowing even more.

“They are extremely worried, because as far as we can say, that the 90 -day clock begins today,” said Garner. “All are at mid-Essai, and they just brought the carpet out. It is difficult to see how all this work is not content to collapse at the moment.”