We’ve had a quiet policy change in the United States over the last year, where satellite broadband is starting to be considered to be broadband by the federal government. Any rural household that subscribes to and loves Starlink would wonder why this is news, but from a policy perspective, it is a big deal. I’ve been considering what this shift might mean in the future.

The FCC decided that Starlink wasn’t broadband when it rejected Starlink’s long-form filing in August 2022, where Starlink wanted to claim the funding it had won in the RDOF reverse auction. The FCC ruled in that process that it couldn’t “subsidize ventures that are not delivering the promised speeds or are not likely to meet program requirements.” NTIA recognized low-orbit satellites as an acceptable alternative for BEAD funding for high-cost locations in a ruling in 2024 that made it acceptable for States to make RDOF awards to satellite companies. The real change in policy came with the recent Notice from NTIA that reshuffled BEAD grant rules and put satellites on an equal footing with fiber, fixed wireless, and other broadband technologies. The NTIA Notice said that the satellite is eligible to win any amount of BEAD funding if it asks for the lowest amount of BEAD funding at a location.

But as is typical with regulatory policy, the NTIA didn’t make a full pivot to satellite. The same Notice that allows satellites to win BEAD anywhere did not change the BEAD map to recognize existing satellite customers as served. The Notice allows WISPs that use unlicensed spectrum to ask to remove locations from the BEAD map if they are already providing speeds of at least 100/20 Mbps. The NTIA did not give this same option to satellite—which could have theoretically allowed Starlink to ask to take all BEAD locations off the map and kill the grant program. I’m having trouble grasping why a home in a BEAD area that is using Starlink is not considered to be served with broadband, while Starlink can ask for funding to serve the neighbor, who will then be considered as served. That dichotomy highlights the satellite regulatory issue in a nutshell—is satellite service broadband or not? Apparently, it’s not broadband for mapping purposes, but it is broadband for awarding federal grants and subsidies.

There are definite implications for satellite service being considered as broadband. First, doing so might eliminate any perceived federal need for future broadband grants. There will likely be millions of rural homes incorrectly left out of BEAD due to the faulty FCC maps. We’re still seeing additional RDOF defaults, like the 41,000 locations that CenturyLink just turned back to the FCC. But the FCC and the rest of the federal government can be totally off the hook for future grants with a simple finding by the FCC that satellite service is fully considered to be broadband. The FCC will be able to take a bow and declare rural universal service has been accomplished—regardless of the rural folks who still don’t think they have a broadband option.

If satellite service is broadband, there probably is no need for future federal subsidies that support high-cost areas. Rural subsidies are the biggest part of the Universal Service Fund at $4.5 billion in 2024. That includes subsidies for RDOF, EA-CAM, and other high-cost support mechanisms for rural telcos.

The only part of this fund that might not be a target to end is the $500 million spent each year to support rural cellular carriers. As satellite companies continue to get into the business of connecting directly to cell phones, this subsidy might also eventually be questioned.

If satellite is broadband, then the big telcos are completely free to finally dismantle rural copper. The California Public Utility Commission has been making that hard for AT&T and other telcos.

We have reached the place where satellite broadband is considered to be broadband for some purposes but not others. It will be interesting to see how long we maintain this dichotomy. I’m guessing for now that we’ll live with treating satellites differently depending on the context—but that can’t last for long.