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From what I noticed. The liberal deep state has quite a bit invested in this program and expects big payouts. Part of that big payout was going to be with the non deployment portion. Smartly the administration put that on hold. The liberal deep state had quite a bit of heartburn with that. Now at this point they are pushing for as much of a fiber build as possible attacking satellite providers (mostly Musk).

The Satellite companies have come in and underbid the fiber providers. Satellite has also made promises they are able to provide the same levels of service as a fiber placement. Being the technology is new I can understand the caution but the liberal deep state is actively looking for ways to avoid Satellite deployment or to keep it at a minimum.

This is be done by exaggerating Satellite weakness such as tree canopy or congestion and applying those weaknesses over a larger scale that they would normally warrant so that hey are not considered a viable option.

It would be wise for Sec. Lutnick to scrutinize the final proposals for fairness in assessment and for overstatement of satellite weaknesses. As well as holding high cost services in check.

A reasonable common sense approach with adequate technology proportioning would provide sustainability and redundancy

The USDA’s “rural economic development” incompetent fraudsters have pulled this scam for 10-15 years now. Even after they grift millions out of Congress, the result is dark fiber because there is never a viable business plan to actually use it to deliver services. Meanwhile private companies have built wireless networks that deliver internet speeds good enough for streaming on their own dime and Starlink is now far more affordable than previous Hughes, etc satellite services were.

The whole thing is a made-up issue just like “food desserts” - look around and you’ll find rural America is enjoying high speed internet service just like those living in food desserts are so fat they have to use the handi-cart to get around Walmart.

Makes no sense to run fiber to podunkville and definitely not to many rural houses where the driveways a a half mile or more to the road. You are never going to get them hooked up. Drop a Starlink receiver in the yard and they are good to go in a few minutes.

Starlink is the obvious solution. Low cost. Home by home install. No running miles and miles of fiber.

You basically buy a starlink antenna for every homebuyer.

There would be money left over.

We own a piece of farmland on a small lake in middle Michigan that is about as rural as it gets. Last summer a company ran fiber along the road in front of our property. Knowing how much it costs to install and maintain fiber, I cannot believe there is enough population density to ever make a return on this investment.

However, if the installation was subsidized by federal grant money, then it was just busy work to make $$.

I made this comment yesterday on a similar post:

Mediacom just came through my rural “underserved” neighborhood and laid cable. One of the workers told me it was a state grant. They seemed to be in a major hurry and got the cable run very quickly and then...disappeared. This the second time someone has done this. I found coax cable buried in my yard and asked a long time neighbor. He said they came in, laid the cable, and were never heard from again. I’ve got T Mobile home internet that I’m totally satisfied with and if I change it will be to Starlink.