The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says the company “has not proven” it can provide the service.
Starlink has lost an $886 million subsidy to expand rural broadband services. According to the FCC, the company could not “demonstrate that it will be able to provide the promised service” and assigning it a subsidy “would not be the best use of funds.”
“The Federal Communications Commission conducted a thorough legal and technical analysis to determine that this applicant is ineligible for funding,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.
Last year, the commission rejected Starlink’s proposal with the same wording, and the company filed an appeal in response. SpaceX previously won a bid to roll out Internet speeds of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps download to 642,925 rural homes in 35 states.
According to Ookla’s latest tests, Starlink’s average download speed in the US was 64.54 Mbps in the third quarter of 2023, which the researchers said was a slight decrease from the previous quarter, but a 22% increase from 53 Mbps /s with recorded in the corresponding period of 2022.
SpaceX says it is “deeply disappointed and alarmed” by the FCC’s decision.
“Starlink is perhaps the only viable option for immediate connectivity for many Americans who live and work in rural and remote areas of the country where the Internet has been unreliable, partially or completely unavailable,” SpaceX Chief Legal Officer Christopher Kardachi wrote in a letter to the FCC.
A week earlier, the FCC had authorized SpaceX to deploy Starlink satellites for cellular communications, but only for short tests.
In November, Elon Musk revealed that Starlink had finally broken even, which could signal a potential IPO.
Source: Spacenews, The Verge
