this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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Starlink operator SpaceX is fighting Virginia's plan to deploy fiber Internet service to residents, claiming that federal grant money should be given to Starlink instead. SpaceX is already in line to win over $3 million in grant money in the state but is seeking $60 million.

Starlink is poised to benefit from the Trump administration rewriting rules for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program. While the Biden administration decided that states should prioritize fiber in order to build more future-proof networks, the Trump administration ordered states to revise their plans with a "tech-neutral approach" and lower the average cost of serving each location.

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[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 36 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

This is absolute insanity. To think that fiber and satellites are even on the same playing field is absolute brain damage.

[–] kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The problem I see is that we've already paid for fiber

[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 15 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Yep, $400bn wasted on fiber "deployments" that never went anywhere while telcos pocketed the cash, and that was as of like a decade ago.

[–] Blisterexe@lemmy.zip 11 points 7 hours ago

And across the pond the french government spent 20bn to have the government build out fiber and now basically everyone in france has super cheap fiber internet.

Paying companies to do stuff that's against their financial incentives doesn't work.

[–] TheTurner@lemmy.zip 3 points 9 hours ago

We just got fiber 3 weeks ago. I pay for 600Mb/s and it is honestly the best internet I've had. I was afraid that we wouldn't get it, but I was astonished when a salesman stopped by. I signed up that day. Lol