Will We Ever Get Proper Internet?
My last piece on the bill to uncap our internet was not overly positive but I remained hopeful about the future of our country’s broadband. Now there’s some new developments on that front and it’s time to discuss the other major player that promised the US amazing gains in terms of internet connection — SpaceX.
No Subsidy For You
A while ago, thanks to the incredible ineptness of Ajit Pai, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tentatively approved an $886 million subsidy for SpaceX to develop broadband across America via Starlink. The decision was then reversed this August, after the commission took a closer look at the deal and got questions such as “Why does one of the world’s richest man need a subsidy?”, “Why does a man who stands against government subsidies and intervenience need a subsidy and intervenience?” and “Aren’t you a wildly successful company that should be able to do this just fine?” Well, they phrased it differently, of course, leaning more toward investigations on why Starlink delivered no results in the two years of the subsidy’s pre-approval and why Starlink actually needed or deserved the subsidy, considering it didn’t meet its requirements and didn’t need to build new infrastructure, relying on its own low-orbit satellites.
Now, SpaceX is upset, calling this rejection “grossly unfair” and claiming that it’s this very rejection that will strand millions of Americans with no satellite internet. SpaceX’s David Goldman even went as far as saying that FCC’s decision was “cherry-picked from somewhere on the internet”, which is certainly not something one should say if they want to get on the FCC’s good side.
But Wait a Second
While there is undoubtedly a lot of people who got starry-eyed over the subsidy and thought SpaceX was about to save our internet, this deserves a sober look. Why, exactly, does SpaceX think it’s deserving of the subsidy? Why would it even need it? And what has it accomplished?
Well, Goldman has claimed that the subsidy rejection leaves a lot of Americans “on the wrong side of the digital divide”, which is pretty flowery and all, but it begs the question of what the subsidy would have changed. Would SpaceX, run by a top-3 richest man in the world, suddenly breathe a sigh of relief and stop taking $600 for a Starlink user terminal? Perhaps it’s that subsidy that would help two tech giants — T-Mobile and SpaceX — to finally get enough spare cash together to “take coverage above and beyond”? Oh, they did it already, doing just fine without a handout.
The bickering with FCC might distract people but not for long and, inevitably, the question will arise: why is such a giant company, run by one of the world’s most successful man, unable to do the one thing they keep promising? Why spend time getting into arguments with a commission that owes you nothing, instead of showing your superior technology in action and getting people on your side?
It Could Happen Tomorrow
With the immense technological capacities of Starlink, which has been showing its quality in the Ukraine war, Musk and SpaceX could get all of America high-quality speedy internet any time they want. It wouldn’t take years, like the subsidy debacle did, and it would immediately get people on their side. Instead, we are still fighting Comcast, our representatives are dealing with bills that apply a little relief but don’t solve the problem and our internet remains as imperfect as ever.
We must stop falling behind and, to do that, SpaceX needs to act, not talk.
