Watch for satellite broadband companies like Starlink or Kuiper to rapidly enter the technology mix for the federally funded buildout of Internet infrastructure as part of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program being administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Under the second Trump administration, the NTIA released new guidance allowing broadband satellite companies to compete for infrastructure grants, giving them 10 years to reach performance standards around metrics like broadband speed, up from the four-year requirement for other technologies. Previous rules, under the Biden administration, placed a preference on fiber technology, given its resilience and operational strength.
Broadband experts said satellite technology is generally cheaper to deploy — about one-tenth the cost of fiber — but the service can suffer when used in dense locations or areas with thick tree canopy.
“Low Earth orbit [LEO] is great. But there’s a lot of issues that haven’t been studied, or considered,” Glenn Fishbine, a partner at Breaking Point Solutions, said during Wednesday’s episode of Broadband Breakfast Live Online, a weekly panel of experts discussing technology issues. “This should be implemented with caution. Especially in areas that have no affordable options.”
A Starlink residential subscription can cost $120 a month. Kuiper is still in development, and subscription rates have not been announced. The Kuiper Project is being led by technology giant Amazon.
A Starlink radio beam covers an area of about 63 square miles, Fishbine said.
“If you have more than 419 subscribers in that beam area, you are not going to be getting 100 by 20,” he said, referring to a download speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) and an upload speed of 20 Mbps, both set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as benchmarks for broadband.
A June 2025 report from Ookla, which provides connectivity intel including broadband speeds, found that only 17.4 percent of U.S. Starlink speed-test users were able to get broadband speeds consistent with the FCC’s minimum requirement.
“It doesn’t mean that Starlink doesn’t work,” Fishbine said. “It absolutely is one of the most fantastic technologies out there. But in terms of applying it into the BEAD program as the low-cost solution, without considering density, is potentially a high-risk decision by the states.” Forests and trees, he noted, can “get in the way” of LEO technology.
J. Randolph Luening, founder of Broadband Toolkit, a provider of broadband planning infrastructure and services, agreed, saying satellite technology works best “in a very, very sparse area, and uncluttered. … So you think of it as a Western state in the middle of the desert.”
Fiber technology remains the gold standard for broadband infrastructure, Luening said, particularly in urbanized areas, with satellite being used “in very low-density areas.”
“That’s unfortunately not likely to emerge from BEAD, just because in most cases, the state is awarding sort of one specific technology per build area,” Luening said during the panel.
“There is an explosion of satellite bids in many states as part of the ‘Benefit of the Bargain’ round,” Luening said in a follow-up email, referring to new BEAD grant rules where states are required to make their BEAD grants available to all broadband technologies.
A lingering concern among broadband technology watchers is the cost for consumers. Biden-era requirements to ensure the availability of low-cost service plans were stripped from the new rules. A Starlink subscription is generally more costly than standard terrestrial-based technologies.
“The next big broadband issue will be affordability,” Fishbine said, citing the cost of LEO subscription plans. “The equipment may be cheap, but the monthly subscriptions are out of the range of a lot of people, especially in rural areas. So, the next issue will be, can you afford it?”
Skip Descant writes about smart cities, the Internet of Things, transportation and other areas. He spent more than 12 years reporting for daily newspapers in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and California. He lives in downtown Yreka, Calif.
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