Image: SpaceX
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) just awarded $886 million to Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring high-speed internet to 642,925 rural locations, spread across 35 US states. The funding was available through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. In total, $9.2 billion was awarded to companies.
The $9.2 billion auction is just the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund program. During this auction, $9.2 billion was awarded to 180 companies. Out of all companies, only Rural Electric Cooperate Consortium ($1.1 billion), LTD Broadband ($1.32 billion), and Charter ($1.22 billion) were awarded more funds than Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
But then again, those are all traditional wireline internet providers, whereas SpaceX was the only satellite broadband provider that got funds from this auction. According to the terms of the auction, the selected companies will need to provide broadband internet with a 100 megabit download and up to 20 megabit