{"id":17619,"date":"2020-12-07T17:30:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T09:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-starlink-satellite-network-wins-885m-in-federal-aid-for-rural-broadband\/"},"modified":"2020-12-07T17:30:24","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T09:30:24","slug":"spacexs-starlink-satellite-network-wins-885m-in-federal-aid-for-rural-broadband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-starlink-satellite-network-wins-885m-in-federal-aid-for-rural-broadband\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite network wins $885M in federal aid for rural broadband"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_595059\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-595059\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-595059\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201207-starlink-630x439.jpg\" alt=\"Starlink launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"439\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201207-starlink-630x439.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201207-starlink-1260x878.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201207-starlink-768x535.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201207-starlink-1536x1071.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/201207-starlink.jpg 1958w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-595059\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket lofts a set of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on Nov. 24. (SpaceX Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite network \u2014 which relies on hundreds of spacecraft built in Redmond, Wash. \u2014 has been awarded $885.5 million in federal subsidies to boost high-speed internet service to rural Americans.<\/p>\n<p>The awards are part of a $9.2 billion allocation made under the terms of the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction.<\/p>\n<p>In all, 180 bidders won subsidies that are to be paid out over the next 10 years.&nbsp;Only one other satellite broadband provider is on the FCC list: Hughes Network Systems, which will receive $1.3 million to serve rural sites in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n<p>The FCC said the RDOF program will provide $222.8 million to support broadband service to rural communities in Washington state. SpaceX is due to get the biggest share of those subsidies, amounting to $80.4 million. Washington also leads the state-by-state list for SpaceX subsidies.<\/p>\n<p>More than 5.2 million homes and businesses are expected to benefit from the program, in which funds were allocated through a reverse auction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m thrilled with the incredible success of this auction, which brings welcome news to millions of unconnected rural Americans who for too long have been on the wrong side of the digital divide,\u201d FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said today in a news release. \u201cThey now stand to gain access to high-speed, high-quality broadband service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"High-speed internet for Hoh Tribe\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CbLY8xLXP0E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The FCC could have allocated as much as $16 billion for Phase I, which targeted unserved communities. The unused $6.8 billion can be rolled over to the Phase II auction, which will focus on partially served rural areas as well as the few areas that didn\u2019t receive Phase I funding. As much as $11.2 billion will be available for Phase II.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the RDOF Phase I subsidies are going to terrestrial broadband service providers, led by LTD Broadband with an award of $1.32 billion. CCO Holdings, a subsidiary of Charter Communications, is due to serve 1.05 million sites around the country, leading the list for that metric.<\/p>\n<p>The FCC said 85% of the 5.2 million sites to be served would get gigabit-speed broadband. SpaceX is due to serve nearly 643,000 sites with download speeds of 100 megabits per second or more.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite development and manufacturing operation has been headquartered in Redmond since 2015. Each month, the Redmond factory turns out about 120 satellites, which are typically launched in batches of 60 by SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rockets.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 900 Starlink satellites are currently in operation. SpaceX has begun offering broadband through a beta test program that\u2019s expected to expand early next year.<\/p>\n<p>Some of Washington state\u2019s rural communities have already gotten a preview. This summer, SpaceX made Starlink service available to the fire-ravaged community of Malden, to emergency teams fighting wildfires near Bonney Lake, and to the Hoh Tribe on the Olympic Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last eight years, I feel like we\u2019ve been paddling upriver with a spoon, and almost getting nowhere with getting internet to the reservation,\u201d Melvinjohn Ashue, the tribe\u2019s vice chair, said in a video produced by the Washington State Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seemed like out of nowhere, SpaceX just came up and just catapulted us into the 21st century,\u201d Ashue said. \u201cOur youth are able to do education online, participate in videos. Telehealth is no longer going to be an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket lofts a set of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on Nov. 24. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellite network \u2014 which relies on hundreds of spacecraft built in Redmond, Wash. \u2014 has been awarded $885.5 million in federal subsidies to boost high-speed internet service to rural Americans. The awards are part of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[252,277,20,442,316,440],"class_list":["post-17619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-broadband","tag-fcc","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-spacex","tag-starlink"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}