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Comment by wmf | Hacker News Reader

Many places have incompetent government that can't/won't build proper infrastructure. For example, the US has allocated around $50B for rural broadband and almost nothing has been built.

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1 billion of that rural broadband funds was allocated to SpaceX, but the Biden administration revoked it in 2020. I wonder which has connected more rural Americans

Obviously Starlink has connected far more Americans than unbuilt rural fiber. Starlink did get $730M in BEAD grants more recently.

I don't think you have that right; BEAD funds were not originally allowed to be awarded for technologies other than Fiber. No one had been awarded in 2020. Many ISPs had been awarded for Fiber projects by 2025, but under this administration, the NTIA changed the rules so LEO could get the funds and rug pulled the original awardees. States had to start the bidding process over under the new rules. SpaceX took home something like a billion dollars at that point (it pays to make large campaign donations, I guess!). Projects should finally get underway later this fall in most states.

s1artibartfast is correct; Starlink was awarded RDOF money that was later rescinded.

Ah, fair. I read BEAD in another comment and conflated the two.

BEAD still hasn't been spent.

It was a controversy because the program specified were for 2025, but the FCC rescinded in 22' with justification that SpaceX was unlikely to meet the future goal.

This was viewed within the context of the ongoing Biden-Musk fued, which included Tesla exclusion from EV manufacturer meetings and alleged FAA approval slowdowns for SpaceX.

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