[trident5000]

You can arrive at your own conclusion. I think its pretty obvious whats happening here (the commissioners voted along party lines right down the middle). And theres no other company thats even close to Starlink now or in the medium term future. So I dont know who would practically fill this spot.

For below comment: This is for "rural" connection. You're not laying wire for that regardless of what Comcast wants you to believe. They can barely service what they have and the cost/benefit of laying 30 miles of wire to reach someone in the woods is never going to make sense.

[I_Am_Nous]

It's a letter from one FCC commissioner, of which there are currently 5. He dissents from the decision the commission as a whole came to. There are a lot of companies on the ground that could benefit from that ~$900 million so a single company replacing Starlink is not necessary. The main concern is if the FCC give Starlink money to reach 100/20 and they don't do it (because there are legitimate technical issues to solve before it's possible for Starlink to supply over half a million people with 100/20), it's wasted money. The FCC didn't think it was doable on that time scale.

Doing some math, currently each satellite launch sends up 22 satellites at around 2.8 Gbps per satellite. For each launch, Starlink adds ~61.6 Gbps of capacity. If we cut that up into 100/20 slices, each launch supports 616 customers at 100/20. To support 650,000 subscribers at 100/20, it would take about 1055 perfect launches.

I don't think the FCC was wrong when they said Starlink could not reach 650,000 people at 100/20 by 2025. There aren't enough days to launch one rocket a day to even try to catch up.

[hnburnsy]

Did you miss the other dissent which would mean 40% of the commission disagreed with the decision?

DISSENTING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER NATHAN SIMINGTON

>I wholeheartedly agree with the entirety of Commissioner Carr’s dissent. I write separately to further highlight some of the meretricious logic that underlies the Bureau’s, and now Commission’s, rescinding of SpaceX’s RDOF award. ... >I was disappointed by this wrongheaded decision when it was first announced, but the majority today lays bare just how thoroughly and lawlessly arbitrary it was. If this is what passes for due process and the rule of law at the FCC, then this agency ought not to be trusted with the adjudicatory powers Congress has granted it and the deference that the courts have given it

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-23-105A3.pdf

[adgjlsfhk1]

you're ignoring over-provisioning which generally is ~10x

[toomuchtodo]

I'd rather the federal government just roll out fiber and not put Starlink and Elon in a position of power. That fiber will always be in the ground and available. Elon has shown himself to be unworthy of any position where trust and good judgement is required. If it costs more, that is a premium worth paying. Fool me once.

https://www.internetforall.gov/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...

https://spacenews.com/senate-armed-services-committee-to-pro...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/30/elon-musk...

https://www.cnas.org/press/in-the-news/elon-musks-control-of...

https://babel.ua/en/news/98461-elon-musk-partially-transferr...

(disclosure: starlink customer)

[cubefox]

> Elon has shown himself to be unworthy of any position where trust and good judgement is required.

That's an insane statement given the unprecedented success of SpaceX.

[grecy]

> just roll out fiber

I worked provisioning internet for the Telco that serves basically all of Northern Canada. 33% of Canada's landmass and only 0.3% of its population.

We're not talking about cities or even towns here, we're talking about very rural customers. Have you been to rural Alaska, or Montana or Wyoming?

I have, and you drive for hours with no cell service, let alone wires in the ground.

You are seriously underestimating the expense to run fibre to each of these customers. Some of our communities it was well over $1mil per customer.

[WheatMillington]

>just roll out fiber

As if this were a trivial task

[ecshafer]

Verizon was able to lay fiber all over rural New York in a pretty short amount of time due to a New York law for similar rural funding. Places that couldn't even get cable have fiber now. Just laying fiber is an alternative to satellite.

[joecool1029]

Do want to point out buildout requirements that are actually enforced in NY would be strongly compelling. Spectrum was heavily fined and had their license suspended on cable for failing to meet these commitments a few years back. Other states just dole out the money without punishing the companies that cash out dividends and use it for mergers.

[mcguire]

Farmer's Telecom Coop service map, Jackson County and nearby, AL.

https://connect.farmerstel.com/front_end/zones

Yes, it's fiber. Yes, to the home. Currently, 93Mbps down, 83 Mbps up (but I have the cheap service). And the service is a crap-ton better than that of Spectrum in NC.

[coding123]

That's what I read too: you're not democratic enough elon