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Starlink operator SpaceX is fighting Virginia's plan to deploy fiber Internet service to residents, claiming that federal grant money should be given to Starlink instead. SpaceX is already in line to win over $3 million in grant money in the state but is seeking $60 million.

Starlink is poised to benefit from the Trump administration rewriting rules for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program. While the Biden administration decided that states should prioritize fiber in order to build more future-proof networks, the Trump administration ordered states to revise their plans with a "tech-neutral approach" and lower the average cost of serving each location.

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[-] drmoose@lemmy.world 60 points 4 weeks ago

This is absolute insanity. To think that fiber and satellites are even on the same playing field is absolute brain damage.

[-] kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 weeks ago

The problem I see is that we've already paid for fiber

[-] TheTurner@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 weeks ago

We just got fiber 3 weeks ago. I pay for 600Mb/s and it is honestly the best internet I've had. I was afraid that we wouldn't get it, but I was astonished when a salesman stopped by. I signed up that day. Lol

[-] _druid@sh.itjust.works 15 points 4 weeks ago

I will string together old coathangers and twisted, unheated solder before I use starlink.

[-] ruuster13@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 weeks ago

Starlink is literally his plan to rule the world. If you singularly control access to the internet for everyone, you've won the information war... against everyone. The good news is his Nazi addict ass will likely die young from a chest-cavity attack.

[-] meaansel@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

L. Bob Rife in the making, lol

[-] iglou@programming.dev 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Good luck having that shitty tech win over Europe, where fiber is proliferating particularly quickly. We all know satellite internet cannot come close to the speed and reliability of fiber.

Plus we hate Musk.

It's good for remote areas and at sea, it's shit everywhere else

[-] Scrizzle@lemmy.zip 4 points 3 weeks ago

Didn’t work. They are laying fiber everywhere as we speak. So happy to kiss Comcast goodbye.

[-] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

Comcast still offers fiber in some places, doesn't mean Comcast will go away.

[-] Scrizzle@lemmy.zip 0 points 3 weeks ago

Does for me! They just ran FIOS and GloFiber through our yard last month.

[-] ArmchairAce1944@discuss.online 2 points 3 weeks ago

Capitalism breeds innovation and advancement, folks!

Also didn't Rupert Murdoch also stifle fiber adoption in Australia because better internet would cut into his TV and print empire there?

[-] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 4 weeks ago

i hope elon dies and starlink goes bankrupt

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

they hate you. always remember. they hate your entire existence. they'd literally crush you in a hydraulic press if they could. giving you pain is the only way they feel a semblance of happiness.

[-] dellish@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

I don't think they hate us, it just that they love money more. They can, and do, inflict untold misery and suffering so long as there is money at the end of it.

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

no. there's no end to the amount of disdain they have for you. they'd do it for free too; they just don't have to.

[-] Isthisreddit@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

People who disagree with you are people who never spent time with the ultra rich. I've had the pleasure to hang in those circles and it was absolutely eye opening the complete disdain that social class has toward the working class. It's so fucking crazy that one has to see it for themselves to truly appreciate the hate they have for everyone not in their economic circles.

Preach on brother, but I also understand why the plebs don't believe you

[-] int32@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 weeks ago

Isn't it that they just don't care?

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago

you kidding? they're demons, making your life worse is what they jerk off to.

[-] int32@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

I'm pretty sure they mostly do it for the profit.

[-] Ilixtze@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 weeks ago

Capitalism is truly wonderful

[-] deafboy@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Capitalism, is in fact, Fascism, or as I've recently taken to calling it, Government with Benefits.

[-] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

I’m so fucking tired of living in this god damned dystopia.

[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 0 points 4 weeks ago

Don't worry, it ends eventually.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

all bleeding stops 🙄

[-] Jhex@lemmy.world -1 points 4 weeks ago

Do something about it then...

PS: maybe you are, if so, Kudos to you... but the majority seem to only rue it

[-] TheThrillOfTime@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 weeks ago

Hey man I'm all ears. Give me something concrete to do.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca -1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Maybe start with doing some research on the Internet yourself instead of asking random strangers from other countries to fix things for you.

[-] Onsotumenh@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Reminds me of the German Telekom and their unceasing effort to slow down state subsidised fibre deployment.

The subsidies are primarily for towns left behind with bad ADSL (it was below 30mbit average and is now afaik 100mbit), that want to build their own local fibre nets cause nobody else does.

They seem to watch for construction permits and then swoop in and build a few fibre adsl distribution boxes or elevate a street or two with fibre to raise the average speed in town just above threshold. The local net looses the subsidies and usually stops construction or if already built only commercial customers are still allowed to be connected...

[-] MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago

why not? comcast pulls this shit all over the country.

[-] 60d@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago
[-] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Musk is a domestic terrorist.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 weeks ago

Musk isn't American; he's an international terrorist

[-] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 3 weeks ago

"But I want a monopoly! I demand a monopoly! I'm not rich enough. I'm afraid I will run out of money and starve!" - The Goblin

It seems like the best solution would be to confiscate Starlink and nationalize it. Same with Space X. We paid for all of it, it should be ours. He can still work there, but he'll collect a government salary, and expect to answer to a boss. Or get fired. Either way, I don't care.

He can keep Tesla, that will be bankrupt in 2 years anyway.

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

As much as I dislike the muskrat, is this fiber actually real?

ISPs in US have been given billions of dollars, multiple times to bring Fiber out and each time they've pocketed the cash and done nothing.

Starlink at the very least, exists.

  • If this is going to counties and cities to build out municipal fiber, then screw StarLink.

  • If this is going to AT&T, again, for the fourth time to build this fiber, then no, give it to StarLink since AT&T will never actually build out that service, fourth time is not the charm.

I take umbrage with StarLink's notion that Fiber is slow to build out though - the single biggest expense and time consuming part of rolling out a GPON network is getting it from the street to inside a premesis.

Guess which part StarLink still has to do and it isn't any cheaper...

[-] MasterBlaster@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago

I got fiber last year. It halved my bill and quadrupled my throughput. It's real, and since then another vendor arrived and is competing with the one i have. This is hiw it is supposed to work.

[-] ms_lane@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago

I'm not sure why people are commenting that I think fiber isn't real?

Of course it's real.

But maybe you're young- Comcast, AT&T, etc, have been given multiple tranches of money since the early 1990s to deliver a nationwide fiber network in the US, they've never delivered more than 0.1% of it.

Giving them more money, won't make it happen.

Giving municipalities (cities, counties) the funds to build out their own fiber networks is good.

Giving more money to Comcast and AT&T to do nothing, is not good, it's corporate welfare.

[-] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Giving municipalities (cities, counties) the funds to build out their own fiber networks is good.

Assuming the big ISPs don't sue or lobby to make it against the law for those cities or counties to then build it.

That's common too.

this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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