Starlink operator SpaceX is fighting Virginia’s plan to deploy fiber Internet service to residents, claiming that federal grant money should be given to Starlink instead. SpaceX is already in line to win over $3 million in grant money in the state but is seeking $60 million.

Starlink is poised to benefit from the Trump administration rewriting rules for the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) grant program. While the Biden administration decided that states should prioritize fiber in order to build more future-proof networks, the Trump administration ordered states to revise their plans with a “tech-neutral approach” and lower the average cost of serving each location.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldOP
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    16 days ago

    This is absolute insanity. To think that fiber and satellites are even on the same playing field is absolute brain damage.

    • TheTurner@lemmy.zip
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      16 days ago

      We just got fiber 3 weeks ago. I pay for 600Mb/s and it is honestly the best internet I’ve had. I was afraid that we wouldn’t get it, but I was astonished when a salesman stopped by. I signed up that day. Lol

    • Jhex@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      Do something about it then…

      PS: maybe you are, if so, Kudos to you… but the majority seem to only rue it

        • stringere@sh.itjust.works
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          16 days ago

          Electronic Freedom Foundation has a Take Action page.

          • Creativity & Innovation; Tell Congress: Throw Out the NO FAKES Act and Start Over
          • Privacy; Congress Can Act Now to Protect Reproductive Health Data
          • Privacy; Congress Can Act Now to Protect Reproductive Health Data
          • Free Speech; Congress Shouldn’t Control What We’re Allowed to Read Online
          • Creativity & Innovation; Tell Congress: No to Internet Blacklists
          • Free Speech; The TAKE IT DOWN Act Will Censor Legal Speech Without Helping Victims

          All campaigns: https://act.eff.org/action

          Or become a member and support their efforts financially.

          MEMBER BENEFITS Your 12-month membership sustains EFF’s legal work, development of privacy-enhancing technology, and public activism 365 days a year. We’re pleased to offer a few benefits as a token of our appreciation!

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        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          16 days ago

          Maybe start with doing some research on the Internet yourself instead of asking random strangers from other countries to fix things for you.

  • ruuster13@lemmy.zip
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    16 days ago

    Starlink is literally his plan to rule the world. If you singularly control access to the internet for everyone, you’ve won the information war… against everyone. The good news is his Nazi addict ass will likely die young from a chest-cavity attack.

    • iglou@programming.dev
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      16 days ago

      Good luck having that shitty tech win over Europe, where fiber is proliferating particularly quickly. We all know satellite internet cannot come close to the speed and reliability of fiber.

      Plus we hate Musk.

      It’s good for remote areas and at sea, it’s shit everywhere else

    • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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      16 days ago

      Recently talked my MIL into switching to T-Mobile home Internet instead of StarLink. I even volunteered to mount an external cell antenna on her roof if the signal wasn’t good enough.

      Elmo and his shitty satellite company can kiss my ass.

        • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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          16 days ago

          They do offer their T-Satellite service which uses Starlink. It only works with supported mobile devices (not home Internet) and is additional to your regular plan.

          T-Mobile is honestly one of the easiest cell operators to deal with in my experience. I would take them over AT&T any day.

    • haych@feddit.uk
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      16 days ago

      I’d rather Starlink just be independent from Musk. There are people who just can not get a good Internet connection and rely on it, and other Satellite Internet companies are awful.

      I hate Musk as much as the next person, but Starlink is brilliant and works well. If they got rid of Musk and stopped being dicks like they are with this, it’d be okay.

      • andallthat@lemmy.world
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        16 days ago

        I don’t know how much Musk can be separated from Starlink. Not only because Starlink, as part of SpaceX, is privately held but also because the main reason they now have a superior service to offer is that they got fucktons of money from government customers, which is also tied to Musk’s action

        A big part of Musk’s involvement with politics is because everything he does, from EVs to rockets to, now, big energy-guzzling datacenters for AI, needs a lot of government backing, if not in terms of direct contracts at least in terms of regulation and incentives.

        Even his direct involvement with Trump wasn’t because he suddenly became a Nazi (he’s probably always been one, according to his own family) but in order to become even more entangled with government investments, even trying to control NASA directly.

        And not only US governments. I remember Musk suddenly being everywhere in Europe pitching Starlink. Meloni’s government in Italy was grilled for allegedly agreeing on a big contract with Starlink.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    they hate you. always remember. they hate your entire existence. they’d literally crush you in a hydraulic press if they could. giving you pain is the only way they feel a semblance of happiness.

    • dellish@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      I don’t think they hate us, it just that they love money more. They can, and do, inflict untold misery and suffering so long as there is money at the end of it.

      • pyre@lemmy.world
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        16 days ago

        no. there’s no end to the amount of disdain they have for you. they’d do it for free too; they just don’t have to.

        • Isthisreddit@lemmy.world
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          16 days ago

          People who disagree with you are people who never spent time with the ultra rich. I’ve had the pleasure to hang in those circles and it was absolutely eye opening the complete disdain that social class has toward the working class. It’s so fucking crazy that one has to see it for themselves to truly appreciate the hate they have for everyone not in their economic circles.

          Preach on brother, but I also understand why the plebs don’t believe you

  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    16 days ago

    “Hey, can we provide Fibre broadband to our residents?”

    “No, we got a lot of money from Sattelite providers, eat shit and die.”

    Hey, this seems familiar.

  • Scrizzle@lemmy.zip
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    16 days ago

    Didn’t work. They are laying fiber everywhere as we speak. So happy to kiss Comcast goodbye.

      • FunkFactory@lemmy.world
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        15 days ago

        Comcast doesn’t necessarily have to go away as long as they don’t have a monopoly on the infrastructure used to deliver an essential utility to homes. But I’d have to agree it would be nice if they just went away too.

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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      15 days ago

      So happy for you! I’m still stuck with shady cable as they cancelled the 2024 rollout.

      I swear Cable internet was propped up by hidden fees and promo pricing.

      • Scrizzle@lemmy.zip
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        15 days ago

        The way they are rolling through Central Virginia I’d say they will have most of VA done soon (relative to years). Even Bumpass has it now.

    • PushButton@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      If they could put that brain power to innovate on their product instead of innovate on how to fuck people, that would be great!

  • flop_leash_973@lemmy.world
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    16 days ago

    the Trump administration ordered states to revise their plans with a “tech-neutral approach” and lower the average cost of serving each location

    In other words don’t give the tax payer the best options you can, give them the cheapest options to implement you can.

    • deafboy@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Capitalism, is in fact, Fascism, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, Government with Benefits.