Carr: FCC Unlikely to Restore Starlink RDOF Subsidy

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2024 – Incoming Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr does not think that the agency can reverse a decision to withhold federal funds from the world’s leading satellite internet provider, according to Reuters

“It's very unlikely the FCC would revisit that,” Carr said to reporters Thursday. Reuters said Carr "cited procedural grounds because [Starlink parent] SpaceX had not sought further appeal or reconsideration.”

The FCC denied Elon Musk’s Starlink more than $885 million in federal funding from the $20.4 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund in 2022 based on the agency’s view that the satellite-delivered Internet company failed to deliver on its obligation to provide high-speed internet access to 642,000 rural locations.

SpaceX’s Vice President of Legal Christopher Cardaci said that the FCC’s 2022 decision was disappointing and deeply perplexing in a December 2023 statement. The FCC reaffirmed its decision in December of 2023 after a challenge issued by Starlink.

The RDOF program is an FCC program designed to bring high-speed broadband service to unserved and underserved rural communities across the United States.

Carr has historically challenged the FCC’s decision against Musk’s company, arguing that it represented a “pattern of regulatory harassment” on the part of the Biden administration.