SpaceX sends list of demands to US states giving broadband grants to Starlink

While the Biden administration designed the program to prioritize fiber deployments, the Trump administration threw out the previous plans. Under Trump, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) deemed the Biden-era plan too costly and changed the rules to make it easier for satellite services to obtain grant funding. The overhaul cut projected spending to about $21 billion, and it’s still not clear what will happen to the other $21 billion.

Starlink sought billions in grants after the new rules were put in place, but states didn’t want to provide that much. So far, SpaceX is slated to receive $733.5 million to offer broadband at 472,600 locations. Amazon’s Leo satellite service (formerly Kuiper) is set to receive $311 million for 415,000 locations.

While not every state plan is final, it looks like satellite networks will get about 5 percent of the grant money and serve over 22 percent of locations funded by grants. Satellite companies are getting smaller payments on a per-location basis because, unlike fiber providers, they don’t have to install infrastructure at each customer’s location.

The concessions sought by SpaceX “would limit Starlink’s performance obligations, payment schedules, non-compliance penalties, reporting expectations, and labor and insurance standards,” wrote Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at the Benton Institute. Garner argued that SpaceX’s demands illustrate problems in how the Trump NTIA rewrote program rules to increase reliance on low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite providers.

“BEAD was designed primarily to deploy terrestrial networks, which are physically located in communities, built with traditional construction methods, and are relatively easy to monitor and inspect,” Garner wrote. “But, on June 6, 2025, NTIA restructured BEAD in ways that greatly increased participation by LEO providers, exacerbating the challenge of applying BEAD’s terrestrial-focused rules to LEO’s extraterrestrial networks.”

SpaceX: Labor rules shouldn’t apply to us

Among other things, SpaceX is trying to “minimize states’ ability to penalize LEO grantees for defaulting or failing to comply with contract requirements,” and avoid having “to report on the use of BEAD funds or other financial information related to the grant,” Garner wrote.