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We are talking about the FENS contract here that was awarded after a competitive bid process in 2023. Verizon and their partners (eg Saab aerospace) beat out HarrisL3, Raytheon, and some others.
https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation...
If Musk is asserting that the contract was improperly awarded, then there are very well established processes to appeal. (And such appeals would also stop work on the project pending resolution.)
However what I see instead is that he is simply instructing the FAA to cancel the deal and use Starlink/SpaceX instead. That is at best murky and at worst corrupt.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/lawmakers-question-musk-inf...
As for Musk's companies' ability to execute on the details of the contract, knowing how to make cellphone calls via a satellite is a million miles away from knowing how to migrate a massive, and safety critical, telecommunications infrastructure from 2000s-era tech to 2024.
Chestertons fence and strict budgetary discipline are both needed, and one cannot ignore the first, claim the second, but hope to get by on hubris.
Which is a result of the government attempting to get more competition in the space. It's not some altruism by Musk.
Taking away existing contracts and assigning them to a conflict of interest is how you lose competition.
As for conflict of interest - I guarantee the existing Verizon contract was not the result of a fair competition. No one would look to Verizon of all companies for any kind of modernization. At least this way we get a competent company working on this problem.
> I guarantee the existing Verizon contract was not the result of a fair competition.
Do you have evidence for these claims? Legitimately curious. Government contracting is often very broken but you state this with a pretty extreme degree of confidence even in light of this.
Regarding bidding. It is incredibly common for these decisions to be made in a way that rewards friends, family members, donors. The law requires a competitive process but it is often corrupted and only gives the appearance of a working process. The appeals are very expensive and time consuming so a lot of the time, it’s just not worth it. There’s not much you can do unless you’re a large company with lots of money.
I don't think general vibes and challenges with winning billion dollar government contracts suffices as evidence for: "I guarantee the existing Verizon contract was not the result of a fair competition."
And sure, we don’t know this change is corrupt. We do know that there is a very clear conflict of interest though, so people are reasonably demanding more transparency.
“Conflict of interest” is not the same as “corrupt.” A person can have conflicted interests and still make totally valid, non-corrupt decisions. Even making a self-beneficial decision while having conflicted interests isn’t necessarily corrupt/bad.
“Conflict of interest” refers to the interests themselves, which are very obviously unambiguously conflicted here.
Government interests: spend as little money as possible for capability X
Starlink interests: capture as much money as possible for capability X
That’s a conflict regardless of what decision anyone makes and whether it was the right one.
Seems extremely wishful to think this particular contract isn’t being reviewed by someone with SpaceX equity (I.e. someone who is conflicted) alongside every other contract, but… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
1: https://fedscoop.com/faa-aviation-safety-system-doge-notam/
I don't mind the idea that starlink would be useful for a ton of smaller airports that the fiber buildout would be extremely costly for what they provide, but the idea that JFK shouldn't use hard lines terrifying.
It does not matter at all if they do a good job or a bad job, it's naked corruption that enriches someone for purely corrupt reasons. Then he has more money to corrupt government.
Last one to praise Verizon but this sounds exactly like the mindnumbingly boring stuff they do.
Starlink has already tried to play politics in the Ukraine invasion. So, how long before they start playing politics with US internet? If they've done it once, it's way easier the second time and, let's face it, their ultimate boss is already in the bag for it.