{"id":44857,"date":"2025-08-05T08:06:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44857\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T08:06:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:06:15","slug":"satellite-internet-providers-bid-big-for-bead-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/44857\/","title":{"rendered":"Satellite internet providers bid big for BEAD projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

As states conduct an additional round of bidding mandated by last month\u2019s changes to the federal\u00a0Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program<\/a>, initial data shows that SpaceX\u2019s Starlink<\/a> and other low Earth orbit satellite internet service providers are bidding big for the funds on projects \u2014 and they could win millions over fiber providers.<\/p>\n

The widening of BEAD projects available to satellite providers comes after sweeping program changes<\/a> were announced in early June by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Along with compelling states to run another round of bidding for BEAD eligible broadband service projects, the new rules dropped the Biden administration\u2019s \u201cfiber first\u201d stipulation, which gave priority status to projects using fiber optic broadband.<\/p>\n

The new guidance moves toward a \u201ctech-neutral approach,\u201d making all technologies equally eligible for funding and opening the door for LEO satellite internet providers to bid on projects \u2014 and in most cases, win, as Lutnick directed states to select projects with the lowest prices.<\/p>\n

Preliminary data from the new round of bidding published by the states in recent weeks shows companies like SpaceX and Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper are requesting only a fraction of the funding that some fiber providers requested in their applications. The data will be used to inform each state\u2019s new final BEAD proposal, which states have to submit to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ahead of the Sept. 4 deadline.<\/p>\n

In Texas, for example, SpaceX \u2014 under its official name of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. \u2014 bid on more than 244,000 locations, making it an applicant for most, if not all, of the state\u2019s BEAD-eligible locations, according to Broadband Breakfast<\/a>. Fiber and fixed wireless provider Nextlink internet had the second-largest number of bids in Texas, with more than 204,000, followed by Kuiper, which bid on approximately 160,000 locations.<\/p>\n

While Texas has yet to publish data about the cost proposed by each applicant, Tennessee published its data late last month for public comment, allowing a window into how fiber projects might stand up to LEO satellite providers following the major changes to the program.<\/p>\n

According to Tennessee\u2019s public BEAD data portal<\/a>, it appears as though both SpaceX and Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services submitted a bid for almost every eligible location, with the total of number of satellite bids almost doubling the number of fiber bids submitted. And not only were there more applications, the satellite providers requested, on average, just one tenth of the funding fiber providers requested.<\/p>\n

The inundation of BEAD applications from SpaceX, particularly in both Texas and Tennessee, comes as Elon Musk \u2014 the company\u2019s billionaire owner and former \u201cspecial government employee<\/a>\u201d under President Donald Trump \u2014 expands and diversifies his business operations in both states. At the end of last year, Musk relocated the headquarters<\/a> of both SpaceX and social media platform X from California to Texas.<\/p>\n

Amid growing speculation about Musk\u2019s influence on the state\u2019s politics, Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly denied public records requests<\/a> for his emails to and from Musk, claiming the communications are \u201cintimate and embarrassing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s other companies are also finding new business. In Tennessee, a Memphis suburb last year became home to the massive supercomputer that Musk\u2019s artificial intelligence company xAI and Grok use, but not without controversy as a result of the data center\u2019s environmental impacts.<\/a> And last week, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that Musk\u2019s The Boring Company would build an underground Tesla tunnel that would connect Nashville\u2019s airport to its downtown area, similar to the company\u2019s tunnel in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Keely<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by Keely Quinlan
\n\t\t\tKeely Quinlan reports on privacy and digital government for StateScoop. She was an investigative news reporter with Clarksville Now in Tennessee, where she resides, and her coverage included local crimes, courts, public education and public health. Her work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Stereogum and other outlets. She earned her bachelor\u2019s in journalism and master\u2019s in social and cultural analysis from New York University.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As states conduct an additional round of bidding mandated by last month\u2019s changes to the federal\u00a0Broadband Equity, Access…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[39069,64,63,2711,39070,39071,237,5437,5707,105,973,3370],"class_list":{"0":"post-44857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-amazon-kuiper","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-broadband","12":"tag-broadband-equity-access-and-deployment-bead","13":"tag-data-analytics","14":"tag-internet","15":"tag-spacex","16":"tag-starlink","17":"tag-technology","18":"tag-tennessee","19":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}