SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Friday slammed the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to deny SpaceX’s Starlink $885.5 million in rural broadband subsidies as ‘extremely unethical and politically partisan.’
What Happened: The FCC on Tuesday reaffirmed that it will deny Starlink $885.5 million in rural broadband subsidies claiming that it failed to meet basic program requirements. Starlink could not demonstrate that it could deliver the service it promised in 2020, the agency said.
“…this was an extremely unethical and politically partisan decision by the FCC that is contrary to the interests of the American people whose interests they have a legal and moral obligation to defend!,” Musk said on Friday. He was responding to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who had dissented against the FCC’s decision.
"The technology plainly works… When it matters for the government, they are engaging in multi-million dollar contracts with Starlink," Carr said in an interview on Friday.
Why It Matters: Republican FCC Commissioners Carr and Nathan Simington had both dissented against the FCC’s decision. Carr then alleged that the FCC had added itself to the growing list of administrative agencies taking action against Musk's businesses following the billionaire's acquisition of Twitter on the instruction of President Joe Biden.
The commissioner termed the move "regulatory harassment" and said that the decision cannot be explained by "any objective application of law, facts or policy" as it is asking for demonstration years ahead of time. Such a standard for demonstrating abilities ahead of time cannot be passed by any entity and the FCC is applying it solely to Starlink, he alleged. Starlink had agreed to provide high-speed internet to 642,000 rural premises only by the end of 2025.
"What actually happened is that the companies that lobbied for this massive earmark (not us) thought they would win, but instead were outperformed by Starlink, so now they’re changing the rules to prevent SpaceX from competing," Musk said earlier this week while adding that Starlink is the only company solving rural broadband at scale.
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