FCC Reaffirms Denial Of $885 Million Starlink Subsidy (Image: X @Starlink)

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reaffirmed its decision to reject Elon Musk’s Starlink for $886 million in rural broadband subsidies. The FCC stated on December 12 that the long-form application of Starlink has been rejected based on the applicant’s failure to meet the program requirements. The funding was aimed at bringing broadband internet services to parts of rural America.

“The FCC followed a careful legal, technical and policy review to determine that this applicant had failed to meet its burden to be entitled to nearly $900 million in universal service funds for almost a decade,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in the official statement. Jessica Rosenworcel also added that the FCC has the responsibility to be a good steward of limited public funds meant to expand access to rural broadband, not fund applicants that fail to meet basic program requirements.

FCC explained in its statement that they followed a two-step process that requires applicants to submit a high-level, short-form application for funding, and those qualifying for that would receive closer scrutiny. Elon Musk”s Starlink qualified at the short-form stage. However, at the next stage, the FCC determined that the company failed to demonstrate that it could deliver the promised service. Earlier in August 2022, the commission rejected the application of Starlink to deliver broadband to rural America. On that occasion, the FCC found that Starlink’s broadband speeds were below the service benchmark set for its subsidies. The FCC made this decision citing Ookla data. However, SpaceX said at that time that the rejection of the subsidy was “unreasonable” and “unfair.”