SpaceX says states should dump fiber plans, give all grant money to Starlink
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/starlink-keeps-trying-to-block-fiber-deployment-says-us-must-nix-louisiana-plan/
SpaceX says states should dump fiber plans, give all grant money to Starlink
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/starlink-keeps-trying-to-block-fiber-deployment-says-us-must-nix-louisiana-plan/
45 Comments
Easier to build a pole than dig a hole….. wait
Just like they should dump all rail plans and give it to the boring company. Nothing gets delivered… imagine being this full of hubris
Nah, they can fuck right off. Terrestrial infrastructure is a diverse and superior path to satellite based tech. SpaceX should be nationalized and made a part of NASA.
I like the Starlink concept. I just wish someone other than SpaceX was doing it. Too much bad business and bad political baggage to support it.
So that when anyone anywhere does something Musk dislikes he can just turn off the internet and let them suffer.
Yeah we should just put all our eggs into one basket dependent on equipment in space because that’s smart.
Until it can do 1Gbps/500Mbps through trees… No.
It’s hard to destroy fiber networks in a conflict. The right adversary could disable starlink more easily, and it wouldn’t be attacking American soil.
Gee, I wonder why they’d say something like that.
I think we should allow community owned fiber as well, to cut out forking billions to Telcoms that don’t end up delivering. I don’t have a problem with StarLink as a second option that communities or states can opt for, but I don’t think a single option is the answer either.
Wake me up when Starlink can provide symmetrical multigig speeds to apartments.
Aint happening.
I say we scrap money for everything that is not me.
It’s mission critical infrastructure and should be a part of general utilities, not in the hands of some billionaire lunatic.
Fiber is better above a certain population density. There are plenty of underserved urbanish areas that would be more efficiently served by wired internet.
Nah give them to me I can do better, don’t worry about it I’m an illegal immigrant with papi’s money
I agree with his point that those grants shouldn’t go to ISP’s that will only use it to milk the citizens. Municipalities should be contracting out fiber installations and renting the service out to ISP’s with very specific limits on what they can charge customers.
Some examples [https://communitynetworks.org](https://communitynetworks.org)
Musk: “Give me a monopoly that I can turn on and off at my drug-addled whim.”
How about no?
How is this a story? “Company says you should use their product not their competitor’s, more at 11”
Sounds like a great plan. How did it work out when he used Hyperloop as a way of strangling buy in on high speed rail?
In other news, stuff company wants people to buy their stuff instead of others’s stuff.
I have a friend with starlink, and despite having good internet speeds I don’t think we’ve made it through a single gaming session without him having some amoint of internet issues. It’d probably be a no-go if you were working from home.
but guys he swore there would be no conflict of interest!
Muck Fusk. Besides, who wants 100,000 satellites blocking the sky.
A 10G starlink dish would be about the size of my 2 car garage, NVM the modem would be too expensive to have a retail market.
Hey guys, instead, you should pay more money for shittier service.
Man selling ice cream thinks you should buy more ice cream.
Any satellite internet is not gonna be even close to what I get out in the country with fiber. Plus, I don’t want the government running the internet, and that is exactly what this is. Because SpaceX and Starlink is still absolutely in bed with this regime. Hard fucking pass.
This would be a catastrophic mistake. One little problem up there and your internet is out. Let’s get another provider!!! Oh, wait, there isn’t one.
Have any of you ever lived in an area where there was one provider? Did the one provider seem to care about you and your experience?
Sure, we all want internet that Elon can just switch off when he’s throwing a temper tantrum.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|——-|———|—|
|[ASAT](/r/Space/comments/1muvra9/stub/n9m0jsb “Last usage”)|[Anti-Satellite weapon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon)|
|ETOV|Earth To Orbit Vehicle (common parlance: “rocket”)|
|[ITAR](/r/Space/comments/1muvra9/stub/n9mbz8q “Last usage”)|(US) International Traffic in Arms Regulations|
|[Isp](/r/Space/comments/1muvra9/stub/n9m9p96 “Last usage”)|Specific impulse (as explained by [Scott Manley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnisTeYLLgs) on YouTube)|
| |Internet Service Provider|
|[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1muvra9/stub/n9lz83c “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
| |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
|[LV](/r/Space/comments/1muvra9/stub/n9lx4xk “Last usage”)|Launch Vehicle (common parlance: “rocket”), see ETOV|
|[SLS](/r/Space/comments/1muvra9/stub/n9lx4xk “Last usage”)|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|Jargon|Definition|
|——-|———|—|
|[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1muvra9/stub/n9mb1lc “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
—————-
^(7 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Space/comments/1mtstzn)^( has 39 acronyms.)
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“Why have blazing fast always-on internet when you can have slower internet that can be knocked out by mild weather?”
🤦reminds me of the monorail episode from the Simpsons.
I remember when I used to be excited for all of the technology that Musk was bringing and promising. Then I found out he’s a psychopath.
Let’s just funnel all of your online activities and personal information through a company that has helped destroy thousands of people’s lives. Ef him.
Of course, so he can turn it off whenever he wants. Yeah…
Musk: “We are a great service for people who don’t have good infrastructure”
Everyone: “Yes this is clearly a good thing for people who live in the arse of nowhere and can’t get the internet in a sensible way”
Musk: “So it’s time to make sure nobody has good infrastructure and everyone’s internet is as bad as people who live in the arse of nowhere”
Pigs say farmer should give all funds to slop
My coworker has starlink and the bandwidth is so bad essential services often don’t work, they come into the office most days.
To be fair companies have been given billions to run fiber and never did so… Give it to someone else is a solid argument… that someone else could literally be anyone.
My roaming cell service is faster than Starlink for less. It doesn’t hold a candle to fiber. I appreciate that is provides affordable internet to areas without traditional options, but it’s not a do-all solution. Also if suppose we are all stuck with Starlink. They have to continuously replenish the satellites. What if there was an issue doing that? Maybe the launch systems are grounded. We’d be screwed.
Tell SpaceX to kick Elon to the curb and we will talk.
No way. No chance in hell man. I’m not willingly letting Elon have a single byte.
What about all those harmful 5G waves that will penetrate my precious flesh?
If Starlink were as fast, reliable, and versatile as fiber, I’d agree. But it isn’t. It’s not even *remotely close* in any of those metrics. So until it is, let’s go ahead and catch up to the rest of the developed world and move away from cable…
Honestly, I can see the costs dropping from around $500 million to about $100 million with Starlink. When you factor in all the labor and infrastructure required for fiber, its hard to argue against it.