{"id":100084,"date":"2025-08-29T04:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/100084\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T04:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T04:09:11","slug":"montana-picks-starlink-amazons-project-kuiper-over-fiber-for-broadband-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/100084\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Picks Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper Over Fiber for Broadband Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Montana is awarding SpaceX’s Starlink $119 million to bring high-speed internet to 20,000 underserved locations in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The funding<\/a> is part of the US Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which will use federal funds to expand high-speed internet to over 70,000 locations in Montana.<\/p>\n

The state joins Colorado<\/a> in largely favoring satellite internet services over fiber installations. In Montana, Starlink will serve over 28% of BEAD locations while Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper<\/a> will get nearly 37%. However, Kuiper gets a smaller slice of funding at $26 million.<\/p>\n

In total, Montana\u2019s BEAD program selected satellite internet for about 65% of the underserved locations, higher than Colorado\u2019s 50%. The states did so after the Trump administration overhauled<\/a> the BEAD program to favor \u201ctechnology neutrality\u201d and lower costs, opening the door for satellite internet services to receive a larger portion of funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Montana\u2019s case, the state says it\u2019ll only need $308 million, thus \u201csaving over $300 million in deployment costs\u201d since it originally received $629 million from the BEAD program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, Montana and Colorado are outliers compared with other US states, which will rely more on fiber than satellite internet services for their BEAD programs. <\/p>\n

For example, Oklahoma on Wednesday announced its own proposal, which shows it picked<\/a> Starlink for only one location while Kuiper was selected for 4,237.\u00a0\u201cFiber optic technology will be provided to 65% of awarded locations, while fixed wireless will serve 20% and 15% will receive low-earth orbit satellite service,\u201d Oklahoma\u2019s BEAD office added<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recommended by Our Editors<\/p>\n

The decision in some states to pick fiber over Starlink has prompted SpaceX to claim that BEAD funding is being misused on expensive fiber installations. The company has\u00a0demanded<\/a>\u00a0that Louisiana and Virginia revise their BEAD proposals and even called for the Commerce Department to intervene.\u00a0The agency hasn\u2019t responded to requests for comment, but it will need to sign off on all the states\u2019 BEAD proposals before the federal funding is released.<\/p>\n

Critics have slammed SpaceX for trying to take funding away from fiber installations, which can offer gigabit speeds without network congestion. A consumer can also already buy access to Starlink, which has long been available across the US; no federal subsidy is needed. That said, SpaceX is working to upgrade<\/a> Starlink to support gigabit internet with improved capacity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the BEAD program, satellite providers such as Starlink and Project Kuiper will need to supply the satellite dish antenna for free to each underserved location while reserving network capacity. They\u2019re under no obligation to offer discounts to subscribers.\u00a0The revised BEAD program also removed<\/a> a state’s ability to set the pricing for internet plans meant for low-income users<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"5<\/p>\n

\"PCMag<\/p>\n

5 Things to Know About Starlink Satellite Internet<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Newsletter<\/p>\n

\n Get Our Best Stories!\n <\/p>\n

Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News<\/p>\n

\"What's<\/p>\n

Sign up for our What’s New Now newsletter to receive the latest news, best new products, and expert advice from the editors of PCMag.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our What’s New Now newsletter to receive the latest news, best new products, and expert advice from the editors of PCMag.<\/p>\n

\n By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n

Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!<\/p>\n

About Michael Kan<\/p>\n

\n Senior Reporter\n <\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

I’ve been working as a journalist for over 15 years\u2014I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017.<\/p>\n

\n
\n Read Michael’s full bio
\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Read the latest from Michael Kan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Montana is awarding SpaceX’s Starlink $119 million to bring high-speed internet to 20,000 underserved locations in the state.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1638,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-100084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}