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Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink is trying to win more public funding for its service in Wisconsin and other states. Image created by Wanwa Omot.<\/p>\nThe Trump Administration is pushing states to put more federal funding into slower, but cheaper-to-install, satellite internet. Critics fear a giveaway to the companies of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
\nElon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink is trying to win more public funding for its service in Wisconsin and other states. Image created by Wanwa Omot.<\/p>\n
By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT<\/a><\/p>\n A representative of Elon Musk’s rocket venture SpaceX, the parent company of its satellite internet company Starlink, publicly challenged plans in Wisconsin and other states to fund high-speed internet installation in rural areas.<\/p>\n The Trump Administration has already rescinded billions in federal grants to states intended mostly to fund the burying of fiber-optic cables that deliver superfast and highly dependable internet to homes and businesses. The administration then ordered states to reapply and expand \u201cthe use of all technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts worry that the federal government will force states to use public funds initially earmarked for fiber-optic instead for much slower but cheaper-and-faster-to-install satellite internet provided by companies like SpaceX’s Starlink and Jeff Bezos\u2019 Project Kuiper.<\/p>\n The federal government \u201cshould carefully review Wisconsin\u2019s proposal, reject unnecessary spending, and require Wisconsin to recompete these locations to achieve the Benefit of the Bargain and bring internet to those who need it in months, not years,\u201d Erica Myers, SpaceX\u2019s senior manager for global government affairs, wrote in a comment on the state\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n The $1.2 trillion, bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act<\/a>, passed in 2021, included $42 billion to bring high-speed internet, called broadband, to parts of the country, mostly rural, that lacked it.<\/p>\n But the rollout was agonizingly slow, and little of the cash had been distributed and few homes hooked up more than three years later when Republican President Donald Trump replaced Democratic President Joe Biden, who signed the bill into law.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh-speed internet is not just a luxury, it is a necessity for every Wisconsinite. Whether you are using it for a job, writing a paper for school, talking with a doctor, or just to talk with family, every Wisconsinite deserves access to broadband they can afford \u2014 regardless of where they live.”<\/p>\n That allowed the Trump Administration to make major changes to the infrastructure bill\u2019s internet funding program, called the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment, or BEAD<\/a>. Wisconsin had initially been awarded more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n The bill intended for most of the funding to go towards locally-owned fiber-optic networks, Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative, a Minnesota-based think tank supporting communities\u2019 telecommunications efforts, said in an email to The Badger Project.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was an expectation that only the very remote, intolerably high-cost locations would be left with satellite access,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n While fiber-optic delivers superfast and virtually uninterrupted internet access, there\u2019s a significant, one-time cost of time and money to bury the cables in the ground, especially in rural areas with few homes. For-profit companies have often refused to make that investment without public funding, because the return is poor in sparsely populated areas.<\/p>\n On the other hand, satellite internet has lower setup costs in both time and money, as only a dish needs to be installed at each home or business. But as technology advances and consumers keep requiring faster internet, the speeds provided by satellite are much slower in general than fiber. Despite improvements, Starlink, the industry leader, does not regularly reach the federal definition of broadband speeds, according to an analysis by Ookla<\/a>, an organization that provides measurements of telecommunications. Internet delivered via fiber-optic cables can already obliterate that minimum speed.<\/p>\n Starlink also says its internet service can be affected by severe weather. And questions remain if satellite internet companies can deliver on the scale needed across the country.<\/p>\n “Satellite internet providers face real challenges in providing a high-quality experience because there is a somewhat small number of satellites relative to the millions of subscribers who each are using more capacity each month,” Mitchell said.<\/p>\n In Wisconsin, more than 260,000 locations lack access to high-speed internet, according to the state’s Public Service Commission.<\/p>\n The state of Wisconsin submitted its revised proposal for internet grants last month, and is now waiting for a response from the federal government.<\/p>\n Mitchell and other experts fear the federal government will force a giveaway to the satellite internet companies of tech billionaires Musk and Bezos, while ignoring a future where increasing internet speed becomes ever more crucial to daily life.<\/p>\n The Trump Administration \u201cis directing Wisconsin to significantly decrease the homes getting investment in order to write a bigger check to SpaceX and give the rest back to the Trump Administration rather than making sure everyone has good access and using the leftover funds for digital job training programs,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n Wisconsin\u2019s original proposal for homes without high-speed internet access had 93% fiber-optic deployment. The revised plan submitted has 73% fiber, 13% fixed wireless, often from towers, and 13% satellite.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if the Trump (Administration) re-jiggered Wisconsin\u2019s plan so that the satellite and fiber proportions were reversed,\u201d said Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor emeritus at UW-Madison.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh-speed internet is not just a luxury, it is a necessity for every Wisconsinite,\u201d Sen. Tammy Baldwin said in a press release issued by the governor\u2019s office<\/a>. “Whether you are using it for a job, writing a paper for school, talking with a doctor, or just to talk with family, every Wisconsinite deserves access to broadband they can afford\u2014regardless of where they live.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Christopher-Mitchell-director-of-the-Community-Broadband-Networks-Initiative-a-Minnesota-based-think.jpeg\")
Christopher Mitchell, director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative, a Minnesota-based think tank supporting communities\u2019 telecommunications efforts, criticizes the Trump Administration for forcing states to put more federal funding towards satellite internet companies controlled by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Barry-Orton-CROPPED.jpg\")
Barry Orton, a telecommunications professor emeritus at UW-Madison<\/p>\n