[1st-mile-nm] SpaceX/StarLink has a lot to learn regarding local broadband, both politics and provisioning

[Robert Jacobson]

Dear 1stMile Colleagues,

	There's been a lot written about the problematic rural broadband to be delivered by SpaceX's StarLink satellite internet service.  Most has been vying technical critiques.  I'd like to add another caveat.

	Recently the State of Arizona opened a statewide Broadband Development Grant competition, making $!00 million in BBB funds available for extending broadband throughout the state.  

	Santa Cruz County (AZ), where I live, engaged Community Broadband Advocates (CBA) to determine where fiber might best serve in the local Borderlands regions. They're doing great work.

	But I wanted to investigate SpaceX's StarLink satellite service as a rural substitute for fiber, for which I gained our Supervisors’ approval.  Here’s what I found….

	StarLink's easier to install for sure:  you can do it yourself in an hour, with a small dish on the roof. And it's portable.  

	In terms of performance, largely because satellite operations are still experimental, it’s about 95% on the way to being just the right service for residential and small-business uses.  You just turn on your receiver and you have 1.5 Gbps down, about half that up.  The modem that comes with your $495 setup is incredibly powerful.  The service costs $99/month.  There are minor service limitations in some locales. But so far, so good.

	StarLink's upper management and its policies have proven a bigger problem.   

	First of all, there's no one person in charge to set the company’s course. Elon and his celebrity guests may strike adventurous poses in orbit, or on Mars, but that’s not where broadband is most needed.  Not by we rural bumpkins.  

	Second, below Elon are multiple ladders of satraps, each potentate protecting his or her sacred domain.  Discovering the right directors and communicating with them without a formal introduction is difficult.  

	Third, the broadband component of the company doesn’t know how to invest money to make money.  For example, the Arizona Commerce Authority requires applicants for its copious broadband funds to pledge in a letter that they will make good on a match of 10% of the total value of each award.  Note that no money changes hands or is prematurely put in escrow by the State. It just wants a letter indicating there will be corporate skin in the game when funding commercial ventures.

	Ask for that letter from SpaceX (as I did) and all you get is groaning about how the company remains pristine by not acceding to such requirements. How petty.  For the $450K grant for which ATI was going to request, to fund 400+ StarLink stations, SpaceX would have to pledge $45K.  That’s almost exactly how much more it would earn in one month serving 400 new customers each paying StarLink's $99/month fee.  A no-lose proposition?  I thought so. 

	But key StarLink sales execs insisted that he/she/they would not write such letters, which go against company policy.  Never before have I encountered such weirdness.  Not to provide in a letter a pledge for $45K, repayable in a month) in return for a $450K grant for new infrastructure and the 400+ new customers it would serve, each paying $99 a month or $1,200 a year — in total, nearly $500,000 a year?  Bizarre.

	When all was said and done, I couldn’t help but decide that StarLink may not be what our region needs. 

	As a StarLink user, I think the service is superb. It would be even better if all my neighbors had the same or compatible service from StarLink and other vendors, and we could easily network.  Not to experience the digging and cable-hanging and other disruptions associated with fiber — plus the cost of maintenance and replacement — would be very good karma.  

	But StarLink won't seize the moment.  It wants autonomy from, not partnership with, the very local governments who would be such good partners.  It doesn’t want to make even meager investment pledges.  It doesn’t want to submit letters pledging collaboration.  In short, it wants to call the tune.  

	That’s not going to fly with state and local regulators and political leaders in our neck of the woods.  Just not. And probably not elsewhere, either,  I had such high hopes…. Elon, are you listening?

     Bob Jacobson

Robert Jacobson, Ph.D.
Principal & Strategist
Atelier Tomorrow Inc.
A Nonprofit Policy Consultancy
To the Nonprofit & Public Sectors



53 Sonoita Drive, POB 222, Patagonia, AZ 85624
Mail: robert.jacobson at atelier-tomorrow.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/bobjacobson <https://linkedin.com/in/bobjacobson>
Mobile:  (520) 370-1259

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