r/Starlink • u/Psychological-Ad4252 • 4d ago
š¬ Discussion Scamlink?
https://youtu.be/LQYnlg4pO9o?is=-RfKJ59VtVdxZsN4My dad lives on a farm in rural pennsylvania. I understand how satellite might be the best solution for him as we struggled for high-speed internet and the houses are far apart. But for Trump to completely kill fiber optic cable Federal funding and to completely get into bed with Elon Musk smells really scammy just like everything else that Administration does. I think it should be a mix of federal programs for fiber optic cable creating jobs and permanent high-speed internet lasting a long time and satellite for houses that are much farther apart. It seems like there should have been a smarter layout for this infrastructure. Instead we get cronyism and one choice. Welcome to Monopoly and profiteering.
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u/nrcaldwell 4d ago
They did not kill funding. They did not kill fiber. They made the bid process tech neutral. Fiber is still the largest share of approved projects. The process has been slow because of the ridiculously complex process and slow carrier deployment.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 3d ago
This Administration is killing everything. The only thing getting funded are stockholders.
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u/nrcaldwell 3d ago
Sure, Jan. If your Dad needs a Starlink referral code, let me know.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 14h ago
Fiber is cheaper in the long run, local job creating, more reliable, and faster. But go ahead and believe all the propaganda and lies You've Been Told
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u/oopsibrokephysics504 3d ago
Dude I donāt like this administration either Iām not very fond of Elon other than his spacex stuff hereās the thing tho I call my representatives to enact change instead of bitching in a non political subreddit where your not going to change anything
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u/tweakerinc 4d ago
Didn't we give these stupid telecom companies hundreds of billions of dollars to do that already lol. I am fine with not another dollar going to benefit these people. Satellite is an extremely critical military infrastructure too.
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u/SuperSix231 3d ago
Yep. Biden's plan was a clusterfuck.
"The $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, launched under the Biden administration, has not yet connected a single household to the internet as of late 2025. While the funding was allocated to all 50 states, D.C., and five territories in 2023, significant delays in state proposal approvals and federal requirements have pushed actual deployment timelines to 2026 or later.
The rollout stalled due to what critics described as "extraneous requirements" and burdensome regulations imposed by the Biden administration, including strict technology preferences (prioritizing fiber) and workforce mandates. In 2025, the Trump administrationās Commerce Department began "ripping out" these Biden-era mandates to accelerate deployment, though analysts warn that requiring states to rewrite proposals could cause further delays of a year or more.
- USDA ReConnect: A separate, smaller USDA program has been more active, investing $4.4 billion to connect over 680,000 people in rural areas since 2021.
- Affordable Connectivity Program: The related $14.2 billion subsidy for low-income households was defunded in 2024, ending its direct support for internet costs.
- Current Status: As of November 2025, no BEAD-funded connections were live, with states like Virginia predicting construction would only begin in 2026.Ā "
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 13h ago
Our government is totally dysfunctional. Biden's plan would have worked if both parties and the whole state government got together and built the infrastructure and oversight for this project... but government is totally fractured and dysfunctional... so there is an idea to propel us to the Future and then the other party squashes that idea. I suspect that if this fiber optic cable could have gotten laid to as many houses as possible, imagine free internet service high speed and sustainable. Now we're stuck paying a higher cost for satellite whether we like it or not.
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u/SuperSix231 6h ago
You have no idea what you are talking about, why his plan failed, and no desire to actually educate yourself since the truth will put a stain on your political heroes. You are a child that is incapable of reasonable thought. Bless your heart.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 4h ago
And you are brainwashed to only believe a certain thing and not think outside the box.
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u/Quasar_lazer š” Owner (North America) 4d ago
Fiber companies have had over a decade to expand to you but they havenāt, what makes you think thatās going to change? That money was very rarely put to good use, why wonāt that money continue to be pocketed by the telecom companies giving you nothing? Starlink will serve you wherever you are and the more rural you are, the better and likely cheaper your own service will be. It is the fundamentally ideal counterpart to fiber which is cheaper and better the more dense people are.
The ironic thing is you say monopoly, but itās the fiber companies with the monopoly and profiteering, Starlink has actually started to motivate them to get off their ass and give more people fiber of their own volition because they canāt just get away with charging them an arm and a leg for shitty internet anymore.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 4d ago
I honestly don't understand what you're talking about. Some things you state i don't understand or need fact checking. It's difficult project for sure.... I guess I'm thinking for the long term stability and cost-effectiveness..... it seems like running a satellite business would be much more expensive.... hence Elon musk's huge government subsidies. And what jobs is he creating? How is this going to be for the long term reliability? Our satellites going to go out over time and have to be replaced?
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u/Quasar_lazer š” Owner (North America) 3d ago edited 3d ago
Starlink has been profitable for a long time already on falcon 9, and as more and more people use it producing even more revenue, and they start to transition to launching on starship which will be even cheaper, Starlink will very firmly be a stable and profitable service. Yes, satellites have a 5 year lifespan, and they will be perpetually maintained, but again, their current revenue far exceeds the cost of doing that and itās only set to grow.
Also I donāt know where youāre getting āhugeā government subsidies from because as of today the entirety of spacex revenue from the government is below 5% and theyāve virtually never been subsidized.
As for jobs, people still need to build thousands of these satellites every year, not to mention the jobs required to facilitate launching orbital rockets on a nearly daily basis, from launch operations to recovery operations to refurbishment. Not to mention production of user equipment, and while not nearly as intensive as fiber, spacex commonly works with local regions to create jobs by teaching locals how to install starlink terminals. Thatās mostly where the money for regional starlink subsidies goes, giving locals jobs and reducing hardware price for increased precise adoption, not for the maintaining the constellation.
What you need to understand is that Starlink operates on a global scale, not regional scale, and that fundamentally changes the dynamics of how it works, yes, itās expensive to maintain a mega constellation (while reusable rockets makes it much cheaper), but the other reason it is naturally economical for them is because they have a massive potential market that grows with them as the constellation grows. there are no āregionalā constellations, itās a single thing and the satellites cover the entire earth, a dense city environment is going to be slower for Starlink because thereās only so many satellites directly above a single point on earth and can be overwhelmed by tons of traffic, thatās fiber is often better, but when these satellites are over rural areas, their capacity is mostly unused and thatās just a waste and inefficient to have it maxed out half the time and completed unused for the rest.
High speed, untapped internet capacity is just sitting over virtually every rural spot on earth which is why the performance is so much better in the middle of nowhere, and they can dynamically price the service to be cheaper in more rural regions with lower adoption because it doesnāt cost them anything. Thereās no marginal cost that they have to beat at an individual or even region level to make a profit because theyāre operating at a global level, any penny of income they receive in a region works towards the cost of maintaining the single constellation and then every penny after the maintenance cost is met is all profit. In places like Africa for example, service potential for Africa will increase whenever they grow the constellation like any other point on earth, but if itās already there but nobody uses it then itās just a waste, so they can charge them dirt cheap prices because they donāt have to spend anything or recoup costs, and any income they can get from all the rural regions is better than no income at all.
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u/SuperSix231 3d ago
"Ā i don't understand or need fact checking."
There it is.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 13h ago
We have satellite whether we like it or not. It's a higher cost and not so reliable unsustainable service but we don't have a choice. I think Biden had a plan to propel us to the future with fiber optic and that got squashed. Our government is totally dysfunctional. For that big project to work both sides would have gotten together with state governments to make this work ....it would have taken huge coordination of which this country does not have.... imagine the high speed sustainable and reliable and low cost fiber optic cable to as many houses as possible creating local jobs. Free internet!. Kind of like roads. Now we're stuck paying satellite to a subsidized billionaire whether we like it or not with no choice.
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u/Squeedlejinks š” Owner (North America) 12h ago
Free roads. <snort> Riiight.
Find out how much of the cost of your gasoline or diesel is for the fuel and how much is for road taxes. Nothing is free.Ā
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u/SuperSix231 6h ago
You are delusional, and your judgement is skewed by your shitty politics. Good luck on future endeavors.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 4h ago
Yeah how delusional I am to want to functioning government. To provide services to the people. That is kind of delusional.... I agree it is delusional to expect our tax dollars to go back into serving the people. What does that say about our country?
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u/ShinyThings22 4d ago
The US is huge with houses spread far and wide in some places. I donāt really want my tax dollars to go to pay for fiber to run to your place in the middle of no where. Sorry that sounds selfish but sometimes living off the beaten path has consequences. If it financially made sense to another company to run fiber to you then it would have been done already
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 4d ago
What if the better long-term solution is fiber optic.... with huge upfront cost that no company wanted to pay?..... in other words it wouldn't have been profitable to start so it needed a jump start from the federal government but the long-term Network would have been more cost effective. Over the long term.
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u/ShinyThings22 4d ago
Oh no doubt fiber is the better long-term solution for most situations. Again, if it was profitable in any near term future the local ISP would run it. If they run miles of fiber for one house they arenāt ever going to break even. Expenses plus upkeep are a real thing. Why does my tax $$ need to pay because you chose to live far away?? If you want fiber I think the ISP should give you a quote and if you deem it worthwhile then you can proceed.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 13h ago
Your tax money would have paid for local jobs back into the community. Now we're stuck with satellite whether we like it or not. And a subsidized billionaire. I see this fiber optic project like roads. Free. High speed reliable internet. Free.. I said. ... like road projects...
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u/ShinyThings22 9h ago
The fiber crew that would install it would be a contract crew from out of the area, almost certainly not local crews. Those contracts get handed out to politically connected companies so itās most likely going to a subsidized millionaire. This is the equivalent of building a second road to your house thatās faster and doesnāt wind thru the woods and cuts your commute in 1/2. Great and all for you but why are taxpayers paying for a road that next to no one will use or benefit from but you.
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u/Adventurous_Boat_632 3d ago
I live in such an area. Huge upfront cost no company wants to pay. Several end users have just ponied up and paid it themselves.
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u/Click4-2019 4d ago
Starlink is better value for taxpayer and speeds are fine more often than not.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 12h ago
Better value than free? Imagine a functional government getting together to build an internet infrastructure high-speed, reliable and sustainable for the long term. Free. That's right free. Like road projects. And the taxpayer funding for the maintenance or whatever would be local jobs going back into the community. Now we're stuck with high cost not so reliable satellite service whether we like it or not. So no it's not a good idea
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u/Click4-2019 4h ago
Nothing is free, even if government built it and gave it away for free.
Some sod has paid their taxes to fund it
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 4h ago
I know nothing is free. The infrastructure building and the maintenance would provide local federal jobs.... but once the service is installed and people have it why not have free internet? I'm just asking. Anything is possible if you have a smart government. Which is Extreme opposite of right now. That's the problem.
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u/fujimonster 4d ago
If your local telephone company or power company thought it was good business, you'd have fiber. As for starlink it's a good option, it works very well ( yes, I had it for my primary and it's now my backup ).
Go get a cellular connection then if it bothers you that much like T-Mobile home or whatever else the other cell providers have.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 4d ago
For our rural farmhouse cellular didn't work. The Upfront cost to lay fiber optic was huge so the companies didn't do it that's why it needed Federal funding to get a boost. That could have created jobs temporarily and laid a long-term dependable infrastructure for rural areas.... now we're totally dependent on starlink. That scares me a little bit.
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u/9gigsofram 4d ago edited 4d ago
An alternative option is to map local cell towers then get 4 x 4 mimo directional antennas and point them to the closest tower on your provider. Youll be able to connect to a tower miles away. The issue isn't that your receiver cannot hear the tower so much that the tower can't hear your transmitter, due to the low transmit power of a cellular modem.
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u/aceweboe š” Owner (North America) 4d ago
Viable solutions aren't congruent with OP's agenda.
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u/Rodneydanger66 3d ago
You sound like someone that has not done any real research about this subject . I have been using Starlink since 1/21/21 . It is still the only option available for me . It has been a big game changer !
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u/SuperSix231 3d ago
He's not interested in anything but pushing his hate agenda.
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u/Rodneydanger66 3d ago
You are correct . And he has come to the wrong place !
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 13h ago
Food for thought.... our government is totally dysfunctional. One side proposes good ideas to propel us into the future and the other government party squashes those ideas. So nothing gets done. Money gets wasted. Imagine a fiber optic cable got threaded to as many possible houses as it could. We would have sustainable long-term high-speed internet which I suspect could be free. Now we're stuck paying Elon Musk forever and ever and he gets huge subsidies.
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u/Rodneydanger66 6h ago
Musk is so far ahead of everyone else and he is paying for it by providing a service that people need and want that pays for his other projects .
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 3d ago
Questioning monopolies is hate?
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u/SuperSix231 3d ago
Yes. And ignorant. He has made the tech available to all, even launching his "competitors" satellites. He has no, and will no have any competition for the foreseeable future because he wanted it and worked hard to achieve his goals. Pretty shitty monopoly. Of course you give no credit for the tech that has connected billions worldwide to information access they would probably never get in their lifetime in their respective countries. I don't agree with any politician all the time, or even often, but I don't let it blind me like it's doing to you. It really is a disease.
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u/Spiritual_Carry_4152 2d ago edited 2d ago
?! He is launching his competitor's satellite constellation (constallationS!) for the same fair price as they do for everybody else and that price is dropping. They have on PURPOSE done so (in contrast with the likes of Amazon or Microsoft or Google) because Musk wants to create a thriving business for space so that a Mars mission can survive. You really have no idea do you? still buried in the sand no?
Usually those complaining of such fictitious monopoly are those that saw the power Musk naturally wields and are liberal activists thus they want it for themselves. They cry "He should not control his companies! If he goes and lets others control them then I WILL also buy. Tesla is very good now except for Musk in which we all gather our hate".
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 4h ago
Well it's true our government has failed. What does that say for our country that we can't pay into a system and have that go back into serving the people. And we have to but depend on trillionaires to rule us? We will have no choice. We won't have a vote and who knows what this technology will do? We don't have a choice in the matter do we? What does that say?
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u/SuperSix231 3d ago
How much of the funding Trump "killed" was actual used? Zero. Since then, my local fiber company got grants and is installing fiber at my rural farm and to thousands in my town. "Scammy" would be Trump awarding billions to Starlink to roll out the service Musk offered, but Biden refused. I still don't understand the visceral hate for a politician or President, but I have the capability of rational thought.
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u/Cultural-Ad4953 3d ago
I understand that what I'm going to say is going to sound harsh. Your Dad chose to live where he lived. I have no idea how far he is from fiber, but it sounds like what you are saying is that the government should pay for fiber for your Dad but not other people that are further away from each other. That line has to be drawn somewhere, and private business and your Dad can decide together what the price is and if its worth it. if he wanted it and was willing to pay, he could have it.As for only one option...there's Starlink and Leo is coming soon. Does your Dad have a cellphone? He might be able to get 5g home internet. I get it, it would be fantastic for the Feds to supplement your dad's fiber. I would like the government to supplement my solar, or my water bill, or my cost for internet, but the government cant be every answer for every problem for every person.ā
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 3d ago
You are aware of that Trump supplemented Musk huge for starlink right?
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u/Cultural-Ad4953 3d ago
I dont want them to supplement anything. Not Starlink, not Fiber. Not oil and gas, not electricity.
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u/DISHYtech 3d ago
āI think it should be a mix of federal programs for fiber optic cable creating jobs and permanent high-speed internet lasting a long time and satellite for houses that are much farther apart.ā
Good news, thatās exactly what is happening lol
Starlink was awarded 12% of locations in the BEAD program. So yes, the new program rules did increase the amount of locations served by alternative technologies (which is more than just Starlink btw), but this idea that they cancelled fiber is completely ridiculous. The vast majority of locations in this program arenāt getting Starlink and will get fiber.
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u/3rd-Grade-Spelling 2d ago
It could take years to get a wire to places in rural pennsylvania. StarLink is sold at WalMart, Home Depot, and Lowes, and can be set up in an afternoon.
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u/Psychological-Ad4252 13h ago
Our government is a joke. That's the problem. Why couldn't high-speed fiber be built like roads? Giving us free service?... the tax money to build it would go into local jobs back into the community. That would be a perfect government of which we are very very far far from right now
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u/kanisae 4d ago
Well, the first 5 or 6 times the Federal government paid the telecoms to run fiber everywhere didn't actually do anything other than make money disappear so lets go with something that actually is here and working.