The former broadcast manager invites the bulletins to Musk’s Starlink A “betrayal” to the rural America

The most expensive broader investment in America has just lost its main leader and supporter, Ivan Fainman. Fainman issued a sharp warning to the colleagues in an email on Sunday morning that millions of rural Americans can stumble at slow internet speeds if the rules are changed to Elleon Musk online Starlink.

In an interview with CNET, Feinman repeats this warning and advising consumers. Farewell e -mail to colleagues, which was first informed by Craig Silverman from ProPublica In the Bluezki publicationThe alarm appears to the proposed changes on The program of property, access and broad publishing program for the domainThe most important than the first fiber approach to an approach that would prefer the satellite internet.

“It is clear that there is a very prominent character in this administration that coincides with a low -Earth satellite network,” Fenman told CNET.

Until March 16, Finman was the Bead manager, a $ 42.5 billion fund as part of the 2021 infrastructure law and jobs. The Trump administration said the Trump administration refused to renew its contract.

The Internet service from Elon Musk is mainly the only satellite game in the city. Amazon’s Kuiper technically qualified to obtain bead financing, but it currently contains only two first moon in the sky, compared to more than 7000 for Starlink. (Internet service providers via geological satellites such as Hughesnet and Viasat are not entitled to finance beads because they do not fulfill cumin requirements.)

Bead’s money is distributed to each state by the National Communications and Information Department, which falls under the Ministry of Commerce. Under the Biden Administration, NTIA clearly preferred to spread fiber in rural areas, which is widely considered the golden standard The type of internet connection.

Trade Minister Howard Lootnick plans to take a more “neutral technology” approach in the bead, according to A report published by the Wall Street Journal. This would benefit from Starlink to up to 10 billion dollars to $ 20 billion – an increase of $ 4.1 billion, which was expected to get the old rules.

“Some of the scary scenarios I heard from people close to NTIA and near the Ministry of Commerce will give 50 % of or more funds to Elon Musk,” Gigi Son, CEO of the American General Real Estate Society, told CNET.

Fiber He is Expensive in many areas. A spokesman for the Texas Observer told me In a previous interview Some rural families in West Texas will cost up to $ 130,000 each to contact fiber.

“It seems that Lootnick believes, like Trump and like musk, that paying the price of fibers instead of the satellite is money,” said Blair Levin, Chief of Staff of the Communications of the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) and the New Street Research.

The amount of BEAD Money Starlink’s money can depend on where NTIA determines that threshold. A source told me that Speed ​​to do bead – It included a draft law that was submitted at home earlier in March- a cost threshold of $ 25,000 per fiber site, but was later removed. If the region exceeds this number, the state’s broadband office will be able to resort to it “Alternative techniques” like Starlink.

Fenman says this shift from fiber to satellite will be a major harm to the American countryside.

“It is not acceptable to send a group of societies to worse educational results, worse economic results, and worse health results – all come with no good contact – for purposes either a political ally support or a misunderstanding of the way these things work.”

This is due to two issues with Starlink service: speed and price. It has not been proven that it could meet the requirements of Bead, and $ 120 per month in most regions, and it is also much more expensive than most of them Internet service providers.

None of the Ministry of Commerce spokesman immediately responded to CNET’s request for comment.

Can Starlink agree with the future?

Critics argue that Starlink speeds do not meet the requirements of Bead: The speed of downloading 100 Mbps, downloading 20 Mbps per second and cumin below 100 milliliters. The only one that Starlink currently meet is cumin, and is still much worse than the mediator in the United States.

Sun said: “This is an investment once in the age of the wide range and giving it expensive and slowly incapable service, and this is not resistant in the future-it is just throwing money under the toilet,” Son said.

OKla data shows that Starlink speeds have already decreased with more people joining the network.(Disclosure: OKla owned by the mother company itself as CNET, Zif Davis.)

Starlink launched thousands of satellites since its first appearance in 2019, but millions of additional customers have been added. The speeds have decreased even when Starlink sent thousands of satellites to the sky, and it is currently not available to customers in many American cities.

Levin said: “I am not sure that Lootnick realizes this,” Levin said. “Starlink has a waiting list.

Starlink said that new satellites will solve capacity problems, but they have not proven that they could do so yet – especially if millions of additional homes are connected across the bead.

“What we know is certainly in the way people use data and computing power is that you never use less than what you used yesterday,” said Fenman.

This follows with the base of the experiment I heard a lot in my time covering the wide range. Nelsen Law It states that the speed of the advanced Internet user connection grows almost 50 % every year, and doubles every 21 months. This has been true every year since 1983, and this is exactly what is worried by Feinman. Starlink may be good enough today – and this has not been proven by the FCC definition – but it may not be able to deal with future applications.

However, Fainman noticed in our conversation that Starlink He has It was an incredible blessing in the rural areas that previously had no other good options. Fenman said that the expansion of Starlink through Bead may reduce the capacity in those places where the only option is the only option.

What is the following for beads?

Many in flow now for beads. Lutnick is expected to announce the rules that repair the program in the next week or two weeks, which helps to explain some urgency in Feinman.

“People completely need to reach members of Congress. They need to reach the offices of their ruler,” Fenman told CNET. “These members and conservatives must be brave enough to say what they know is true for the Trump administration, and they say:“ We want to get the best possible contact on the budget for our societies. “

If you want to communicate with your elected representatives about the changes in the Bead program, you can download the 5 call application in App Store or Google Play place. The application searches and writes text programs for various issues, determines relevant decision -makers, and collects phone numbers for their offices.