SpaceX is in the news again and this time because its satellite internet system Starlink is offering temporarily free service to those impacted by Hurricane Milton.
While other communications technologies often rely on ground-based infrastructure that can be disrupted by poor weather conditions such as hurricanes, Starlink can quickly connect consumers through its system of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. This is a good reminder of the range of broadband technologies, and why policymakers should not be picking winners and losers in broadband to fund deployment.
In an ideal world, the government would not play favorites. But that simply isn’t reality. The government has a history of preferencing government-owned networks at the expense of private alternatives. These preferences defy good policymaking when they tilt funding distributions toward fiber, or any other technology, in infrastructure deployment. Starlink is but the latest victim.
Just last month, Federal Communication Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel implied that Starlink was monopolizing the satellite commercial space. “We do have one player that’s got almost two-thirds of the satellites in space,” she lamented at the recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Aerospace Summit, likely referencing a tweet by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk celebrating Starlink’s 7,000th satellite launch.
Those comments are as puzzling as they are contradictory. After all, part of the Commission’s rationale for excluding Starlink from previous broadband subsidy programs was that it believed the company was not capable of meeting even basic performance benchmarks. To the FCC, Starlink is both too successful and not successful enough.
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Nate Scherer is a policy analyst with the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit us at www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal.