>Riddle me this, would SpaceX not have built out Starlink if they didn't get this subsidy? I feel like that's a rhetorical question, but the obvious answer is

>Riddle me this, would SpaceX not have built out Starlink if they didn't get this subsidy? I feel like that's a rhetorical question, but the obvious answer is yes. >Since they already put Starlink satellites in orbit without any guarantees of subsidies, was this good use of government funds? I suppose that depends: if Space-X's original timeline was 10 years... is it more or less valuable to the US to have broadband access on an accelerated timeline? My guess is, especially in the face of covid, the more access to high speed the better. Would you rather have had those funds going to Frontier and Comcast? The funds are GOING to be spent, the only question is how. Not having rural broadband has been deemed an unacceptable outcome by the majority of Americans. The way the funds have been spent to date have definitely been a mixed bag. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/07/fcc-digital-divide-spacex-broadband/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/07/fcc-dig...