New Mexico’s $70 Million Starlink Plan Not in State Budget

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2025 - A plan to spend $70 million to expand high-speed satellite internet access, particularly through Elon Musk’s Starlink, was not adopted by the state legislature.

The proposal, made by the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion last year, sought funding to offer about 95,000 underserved locations a free Starlink terminal through the Accelerate Connect NM initiative, with additional subsidies for low-income households.

Last November, then-FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr expressed approval for using that funding to provide Starlink. 

“New Mexico shows that, contrary to the federal government’s claim, Starlink is a reliable broadband service and the Biden Admin’s contrary claim is not grounded in the facts or sound policy. It is DOGE time," Carr said. 

The proposal, developed by state broadband Director Drew Lovelace, also called for using the state’s $675.4 million allocation from the $42.45 billion BEAD program to roll out fiber to the same locations offered the free Starlink dish. 

Carr was less supportive of using BEAD funding to provide fiber to the same locations being served by Starlink.

“That’s like the government paying for you to have a driveway and then coming back a couple of years later and paying to build you a second driveway parallel to your existing one," Carr said.

Lovelace requested $70 million last November as a one-time appropriation in House Bill 2, the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The House Appropriations and Finance Committee did not include the requested money in the state’s fiscal year budget. 

“It was not included in the legislative budget,” Lovelace's spokesman Mike Curtis said Monday in an email to Broadband Breakfast.

In an interview with Source New Mexico, Lovelace noted concerns about relying on a single satellite provider like Starlink, adding, “A lot of the rural legislators have also expressed concerns about wanting to put that money toward actual infrastructure that’s going to stay in the state.”