SpaceX is one of the RDOF Auction Winners

[volker2020]

According to telecompetitor.com they won $885.5 million for 642,000 locations, making them one of the major receivers.

In the USA, RDOF = Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

edit/zubenelgenubi

[gongora]

https://www.fcc.gov/document/auction-904-winning-bidders

[gongora]

SpaceX amounts (by state).  Reminder this is over a 10 year period.

[rockets4life97]

Can someone explain the significance of this? Thanks in advance.

[gongora]

There were 180 winning bidders in the auction, with the 10-year support amount totaling $9.23 billion and covering
5,220,833 locations in 49 states and one territory. Of the 5,295,771 locations in the 61,766 eligible census block groups, approximately 99% of the locations are covered by winning bids. While winning bids are for a range of performance tiers, winning bids for downstream speeds of at least 100 megabits per second (Mbps) cover 99.7% of these locations, with over 85% of locations covered by winning bids for Gigabit speed service.

So obviously they counted Starlink as at least 100Mbps service.  I doubt they counted it as gigabit, so Starlink (with 12% of locations) would be one of the few applicants to win with less than gigabit service.
SpaceX totals: $885,509,638.40 for 642,925 locations

[gongora]

Can someone explain the significance of this? Thanks in advance.

It's a program to subsidize broadband service to underserved areas of the U.S. over the next 10 years.  Just a few months ago it was unclear if SpaceX would even qualify to participate.  Now they have the opportunity to get payments from the government to subsidize service to the listed locations.  It looks like companies offering geostationary satellite service basically got nothing from the auction.

[gongora]

Results Map: https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/maps/rdof-phase-i-dec-2020/

SpaceX is one of the few companies in the "Above Baseline" (100Mbps) / low latency tier, so it's easy to see from the colors where they won.

[volker2020]

Can someone explain the significance of this? Thanks in advance.

Basically they got federal grants to further develop there starlink constellation. While there already was a huge demand from investors, it will make the start of the starlink constellation much smoother.

It means that they have convinced the deciders, that they could offer a stable 100 MBit connection, which is no small accomplishment. Starlink is the money cow, that could make colonizing mars possible, and this gives them a solid lead to other space companies playing with the idea of setting up there own mega constellations. Since at least with the second generation, each satellite could be used world wide, this gives them further advantages.

[gongora]

Lots of money left over for the second round in a few years, which will be welcomed by any other LEO constellations in or near service at the time.

Competitive bidding brought the auction in significantly under budget, allocating $9.2 billion in support out of the $16 billion set aside for the Phase I auction. The $6.8 billion in potential Phase I support that was not allocated will be rolled over into the future Phase II auction, which now can draw upon a budget of up to $11.2 billion in targeting partially-served areas and the few unserved areas that did not receive funding through Phase I.

All of the bids can be found here: https://auctiondata.fcc.gov/public/projects/auction904

(For some reason Excel is having issues opening an 890MB .csv file on my computer)

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

The basic implications is that the FCC does not consider there to be much question as to whether technically Starlink can deliver the specified service. But that they can deliver it at a competitive price in these rural areas.

Although there is a question.
What is the payout profile by year such as up front loading to cover "infrastructure emplacement"?

I imagine it is heavily loaded on the front end and tapering off to nearly nothing by year 10.

[wannamoonbase]

Seems like a good source of revenue that can be driven into customer antenna cost reduction.

[niwax]

The subsidies appear to be anywhere from $500 to $2000 per customer. Does anyone know why they would have different amounts for different places? Or are they simply bidding higher where there's the least competition?

Anyway, it would at least cover the initial charge for the antenna. That makes it quite the attractive package even at current pricing.

[gongora]

The subsidies appear to be anywhere from $500 to $2000 per customer. Does anyone know why they would have different amounts for different places? Or are they simply bidding higher where there's the least competition?

There were multiple rounds of bidding.  The winning bids would depend on the competition in the area.

[abaddon]

Lots of money left over for the second round in a few years, which will be welcomed by any other LEO constellations in or near service at the time.

Are first-round winners allowed to bid next time around?

[Robotbeat]

Lots of money left over for the second round in a few years, which will be welcomed by any other LEO constellations in or near service at the time.

Competitive bidding brought the auction in significantly under budget, allocating $9.2 billion in support out of the $16 billion set aside for the Phase I auction. The $6.8 billion in potential Phase I support that was not allocated will be rolled over into the future Phase II auction, which now can draw upon a budget of up to $11.2 billion in targeting partially-served areas and the few unserved areas that did not receive funding through Phase I.

All of the bids can be found here: https://auctiondata.fcc.gov/public/projects/auction904

(For some reason Excel is having issues opening an 890MB .csv file on my computer)

Good to hear there’s still plenty for other LEO megaconstllations. Competition is good, and this should also help the development of RLVs generally.

[abaddon]

The subsidies appear to be anywhere from $500 to $2000 per customer. Does anyone know why they would have different amounts for different places? Or are they simply bidding higher where there's the least competition?

There were multiple rounds of bidding.  The winning bids would depend on the competition in the area.

Right.  And remember, the other option here is fiber, and unlike Starlink [or other satellite technology] those costs vary substantially based on location.

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

The amount of subsidy for an area probably has several factors. Number of potential subscribers in an area. Remoteness of the area (distance from any broadband services as in cable). The amount for infrastructure and the amount for monthly service cost reduction. Each area could have very significantly different subsidies payout profiles and total amounts.

SpaceX infrastructure costs directly related to an area would be Gateway installations and the "pizza on a stick" terminals.

[DreamyPickle]

Subsidy seems to be 1377$ per location. If dishy is indeed 2600$ then the subsidy covers more than half with SpaceX and the customers splitting the rest.

[Nomadd]

Subsidy seems to be 1377$ per location. If dishy is indeed 2600$ then the subsidy covers more than half with SpaceX and the customers splitting the rest.

And if the dish is 35 cents, they'll make a bundle. But it won't be.

[ncb1397]

Can someone explain the significance of this? Thanks in advance.

Depends on how you look at it. The glass half full perspective from the SpaceX point of view, they are one of the largest recipients (4th overall). On the other hand, a handful of their competitors got significantly more to expand coverage. For instance, LTD broadband which currently offers fixed wireless coverage in parts of Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin got ~$1.3 billion dollars to improve their service and expand coverage into Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, Colorado and California. So, this one company went from a competitor in 5 states to competing in 15 states (and they offer plans significantly below $100 per month). So, it is a mixed bag, which was probably why SpaceX was pretty lukewarm and/or hostile to these types of programs prior to this.

“SpaceX believes that it is more effective to leverage advanced technology and smart private sector infrastructure investment to reach America’s unserved and underserved population, rather than seek Government subsidization for this effort,” SpaceX’s Vice President of Satellite Government Affairs, Patricia Cooper, wrote in a May 8 letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

Cooper thanked the FCC for revising the Connect America auction rules, but said systems like Starlink won’t need government funding to connect rural and other remote areas.

https://spacenews.com/spacex-wont-seek-u-s-rural-broadband-subsidies-for-starlink-constellation/