Elon Musk’s Starlink could soon tap into $42 billion federal program

The Commerce Department has changed its rules in a way that could open the door for Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, to become part of a federal $42 billion grant program to bring high-speed service to rural and poor areas of the United States.

The Commerce Department has changed its rules in a way that could open the door for Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, to become part of a federal $42 billion grant program to bring high-speed service to rural and poor areas of the United States. The rules of the program — known as Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment or BEAD — previously gave preference to fiber-optic service. That essentially shut out services like Starlink, a unit of Musk’s SpaceX company, which beams high-speed online access from its satellites in low-earth orbit to terminals on the ground. The Commerce Department, which oversees the program, announced Wednesday that BEAD is now open to all forms of internet connectivity. “The Department is ripping out the Biden Administration’s pointless requirements,” said a statement from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “It is revamping the BEAD program to take a tech-neutral approach that is rigorously driven by outcomes, so states can provide internet access for the lowest cost.” Lutnick did not specifically mention plans to grant funds under the program to Starlink, or any other satellite service. But the “tech-neutral” reference points in that direction. He complained that BEAD, created by Congress in 2021, has yet to connect any homes to the internet. (The Biden administration announced in September that it had distributed $20 billion so far to states and territories under the program, but it did not claim any homes had yet been connected.)