SpaceX Blasts Virginia's Final BEAD Plans
Starlink parent SpaceX urged Virginia to reconsider its final BEAD plans, saying the commonwealth failed to comply with NTIA's new program rules. "Simply put, Virginia has put its heavy thumb on the scale in favor of expensive, slow-to-build fiber bias over speedy, low cost, and technology neutral competition," the company said in a letter Thursday. SpaceX accused Virginia of failing to run a competitive process, not being technology neutral, and disregarding program rules.
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The company noted that 95% of BEAD-eligible locations have "an active Starlink subscriber within [one] mile." It urged the state to reconsider the applications it received. "Without this action, NTIA must deny Virginia's final proposal," SpaceX said. "The playing field was anything but level and technology neutral" and was instead "insurmountably stacked against low-Earth orbit satellite operators like SpaceX."