Blair Levin’s Conspiracy Theory – Lutnick Delayed BEAD Just to Help Musk’s Starlink
But the Wall Street analyst’s dubious foot-dragging theory appears to be a few LEO satellites short of a constellation
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NTIA: BEAD Conspiracy Syndrome is catching on in Washington, D.C. Tech Dirt writer Karl Bode has falsely reported three times since Aug. 31 that NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth corruptly steered “billions” in BEAD dollars to Starlink parent SpaceX and Amazon Leo when in fact the two barely got $1 billion combined. Now, Wall Street analyst Blair Levin is circulating his own BEAD conspiracy theory, but his theory seems to be a few LEO satellites short of a constellation. But that won’t stop people like Bode from amplifying it eventually.
“I would note something that I think Wall Street understands well, but no one in Washington does – what [Commerce Secretary Howard] Lutnick did for [SpaceX CEO Elon] Musk was fantastic, but not because he gave Musk more money in BEAD, but because he delayed the competition to Musk with fiber for a couple of years,” Levin said Sept. 23 in a live webcast hosted by Fiber Broadband Association CEO Gary Bolton. It’s as if Levin wanted people to forget the Biden administration did not connect a single fiber location in the 38 months it had after BEAD became law. Meanwhile, Roth visited the city of Ogallala, Nebraska in May to celebrate the first BEAD-funded fixed wireless connection just 10 months after being sworn in. (More after paywall)
