{"id":103761,"date":"2025-08-30T21:21:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T21:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103761\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T21:21:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T21:21:15","slug":"ohio-picks-spacexs-starlink-to-bring-internet-to-31000-underserved-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/103761\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio Picks SpaceX’s Starlink to Bring Internet to 31,000 Underserved Locations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag<\/a> as a preferred source on Google.<\/p>\n

While many US states are using federal funds to expand fiber networks, Ohio is turning to SpaceX\u2019s Starlink<\/a> to deliver high-speed broadband to 31,000 underserved locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starlink has emerged as the top provider for Ohio\u2019s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which is focused on using federal funds to close high-speed internet gaps across the US.\u00a0On Thursday, Ohio revealed<\/a> it picked Starlink for 41% of the state\u2019s underserved locations, far more than any other ISP. Coming in second, at 13%, is fiber provider Spectrum from Charter Communications.<\/p>\n

\"Percentages<\/p>\n

\n (Credit: PCMag)\n<\/p>\n

In Ohio, Starlink will receive $51.6 million in federal subsidies. This is the second-largest BEAD allocation for Starlink to date, behind\u00a0Montana<\/a>, which awarded Starlink $119 million through its own BEAD proposal, but for only 20,000 underserved locations in the state, or a 28% share. (Meanwhile, Colorado is also banking on satellite internet services, but instead mostly<\/a> selected Starlink\u2019s rival, Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper.)<\/p>\n

\"OHIO<\/p>\n

\n (Credit: Ohio BEAD Grant program)\n<\/p>\n

Although Ohio and Montana will still rely on fiber for some locations, both states awarded a significant share of their funding to Starlink after the Trump administration overhauled<\/a> the BEAD program to focus on \u201ctechnology neutrality\u201d and lower costs. The controversial change opened the door for more BEAD funding to flow to satellite internet services, but at the expense of faster, but costly fiber installations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ohio was granted $793 million in BEAD funds, but the state\u2019s\u00a0proposal<\/a>\u00a0shows it\u2019ll only need $227 million. Ohio prioritized bids with the \u201clowest cost,\u201d with shorter deployment periods and network speeds as secondary factors. That likely gave Starlink a leg up since\u00a0satellite internet service is widely available and cheaper to deploy compared with laying miles of fiber optic cable.<\/p>\n

Still, Ohio’s BEAD proposal shows that Starlink is only required to provide internet speeds of 100Mbps for downloads and 20Mbps for uploads. The other fiber providers, such as Spectrum and AT&T, plan on supplying 1 gigabit to the underserved locations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recommended by Our Editors<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s decision to save costs by letting more BEAD funding go toward satellite providers over fiber has sparked criticism<\/a>. Doug Adams, a broadband marketing executive, wrote<\/a> of Ohio\u2019s BEAD proposal: \u201cAn argument could be made that the people who want satellite, already have satellite. Or to quote one off-the-record (and tongue-in-cheek) state broadband leader, ‘What are we even paying for?'”<\/p>\n

Under the BEAD program, Starlink is only required to provide a free satellite dish to eligible locations while reserving network capacity; it\u2019s under no obligation to provide discounted monthly service to all subscribers. Still, SpaceX says it\u2019s working on upgrading<\/a> Starlink to provide gigabit speeds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company has also been demanding<\/a> that at least a few US states, such as Virginia and Louisiana, revise their BEAD proposals, claiming Starlink was unfairly overlooked. SpaceX has also urged the Commerce Department to intervene.<\/p>\n

\"5<\/p>\n

\"PCMag<\/p>\n

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

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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

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Read the latest from Michael Kan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don’t miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google. While many US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1638,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-103761","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\/103761","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=103761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}