SpaceX appeals US FCC’s rejection of rural broadband subsidies

$885.5 million in funding has been tentatively allocated in 2020 under the Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunities Fund

SpaceX on Friday challenged the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to deny the space company’s satellite Internet unit $885.5 million in rural broadband subsidies, calling the move “flawed” and “grossly unfair” in a regulatory filing.

Last month, the FCC rejected requests from SpaceX and billionaire Elon Musk’s LTD Broadband for funding tentatively awarded in 2020 under the commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, a multibillion-dollar program in which SpaceX was poised to receive $885.5 million dollars for satellite transmission. internet to regions of the US with little or no internet connection.

“This decision appears to have been made with a clear bias against fiber, rather than on the merits of truly connecting unserved Americans,” SpaceX Senior Director of Satellite Policy David Goldman wrote Friday night.