Trump’s delay in rural broadcasting program may be of benefit to Starlink

Republicans have not conveyed many opportunities to criticize the broadband, access and implementation (Bead) program for its slow introduction in the last few years. And now they add 90 more days of delays.

In a notice sent to the state broadband services today, the National Administration for Telecommunications and Information (NTIA) gave the countries a blanket 90-day extension to submit their final proposals for bead money. The reason given in the notification is “improving efficiency, to use a more neutral approach technology, to cut unnecessary bureaucracy and to optimize implementation.”

“Technologically neutral” is the key phrase here. Bead is written for a priority of fiber nets but is expected to change your rules to favor satellite internetS

The only satellite internet provider that would currently qualify is Starlink of Elon Musk.

“It is all the appearances to target the money to Starlink,” Drew Garner, director of policy at the Institute for Broadband and Society in Benton, told CNET.

Since President Donald Trump has taken office earlier this year, countries have been preparing for Mass changes in beadswhich was passed as part of the Law on Investment and Jobs in 2021. Starlink is expected to receive up to $ 20 billion in funding under the new Lutnick rules – compared Posted in March by Wall Street JournalS

Brian Allenby, senior director of Maine connectivity, said his office was in a model of behavior as Luni signals upcoming changes to the program.

“We are ready to leave. Internet providers are clearly ready to go. We are just waiting for this guide to the program,” Alanby told CNET.

During the four -year Bead Fiber process he has always been the North Star. It is the fastest, most resistant to future technology, but it is also more expensive to install than satellite-especially in extremely remote areas. It was there that technologies like Starlink had to fill the gap as an “alternative technology” in areas where no other provider offered to offer a service that meets Bead speed and latency requirements.

It is worth noting that Starlink has not proven that it can meet these requirements themselves – something that is likely to change with the upcoming changes to the Bead rules. The most Oookla data It shows that Starlink’s speed is about 79Mbps, which is well under 100Mbps required by beads. (Discovering: Oookla is owned by the same mother company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

Until recently, this left Starlink from the beads, feeding fury. Musk even said on x In June, this beads “is an outrageous loss of money from taxpayers and fails to serve people in need.”

Experts with broadband I spoke with said it was ironic, that the reason given for the 90-day delay was to speed up the process.

“I cannot imagine something less rational than a bureaucratic, 90-day delay, in which countries are essentially nothing to do but wait for the new rules they will have to adapt to,” Garner said.