SpaceX is taking action against a proposed broadband funding plan in Louisiana, alleging that it violates new rules benefiting the company’s Starlink satellite system. The Trump administration rewrote the $42 billion BEAD grant program rules to adopt a “tech-neutral approach” and lower costs for serving locations.
In a filing with the Louisiana Office of Broadband Development and Connectivity, SpaceX claimed that the state plan would spend nearly half a million dollars on connecting unserved areas, compared to its own offer of less than $100 million. The company accused the state of ignoring statutory requirements and not conducting a competitive process.
According to SpaceX, the Louisiana Local Fiber Consortium was awarded 378 million dollars for 68,535 locations, while Starlink received only 7.75 million dollars for serving 10,327 locations. The company argued that this allocation does not comply with the program’s rules and awards more funds to fiber projects than to its own technology.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/starlink-keeps-trying-to-block-fiber-deployment-says-us-must-nix-louisiana-plan