Policyband

Elon Musk's SpaceX Calls on the FCC to Slash the $4.5 Billion High-Cost Fund

Starlink's parent said 'the long-standing problem of high-speed broadband network access has effectively been solved, rendering most legacy High-Cost support mechanisms redundant'

Ted Hearn

May 15, 2026 — 9 min read

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USF: Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a plan to save taxpayers billions of dollars: Shut down outdated Universal Service Fund (USF) programs that keep down monthly broadband bills for customers connected to rural ISPs. SpaceX is urging the FCC led by Chairman Brendan Carr to phase out most of its $4.5 billion High‑Cost program, arguing that satellite broadband (and the BEAD program) have erased the access gaps the subsidies were designed to fix. “The rapid growth of low‑Earth orbit satellite broadband service in recent years has made high-speed, low-latency broadband access available throughout the entirety of the U.S.,” the company’s Joseph Bissonnette wrote in a May 13 letter to the FCC. “The [FCC’s] universal service programs must adapt to a reality where the long-standing problem of high-speed broadband network access has effectively been solved, rendering most legacy High-Cost support mechanisms redundant.” More after paywall)