December 12, 2023

BY ELECTRONIC FILING
Marlene H. Dortch
Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
45 L Street, N.E.
Washington, DC 20554

Re: In re Long Form Application of Starlink Services, LLC, File No. 0009395128; Rural
Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904), WC Docket No. 19-126, AU Docket No. 20-
34; Petition of Starlink Services, LLC for Designation as an Eligible
Telecommunications Carrier, WC Docket No. 09-197

Dear Ms. Dortch:

SpaceX 1 is deeply disappointed and perplexed by the Commission’s decision to exclude SpaceX’s
Starlink satellite broadband service from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (“RDOF”). This
decision directly undermines the very goal of RDOF: to connect unserved and underserved
Americans. Starlink is demonstrably one of the best options—likely the best option—to
accomplish the goals of RDOF. Indeed, Starlink is arguably the only viable option to immediately
connect many of the Americans who live and work in the rural and remote areas of the country
where high-speed, low-latency internet has been unreliable, unaffordable, or completely
unavailable, the very people RDOF was supposed to connect.

The errors leading to this indefensible decision originated with the Wireline Competition Bureau.
To pass the Bureau’s review of SpaceX’s short-form application, Starlink had to overcome the
skepticism the Commission initially expressed about allowing new space-based technologies into
the program. It did overcome that skepticism, and the Bureau determined on October 13, 2020,
that SpaceX was qualified to bid in the RDOF auction. SpaceX participated in the auction and
successfully bid on 642,925 locations in 35 states. Following the auction, SpaceX dedicated
significant engineering and other resources toward meeting its obligations, submitted its long-form
application in compliance with program rules, responded to multiple rounds of intensive questions
from the staff, and explained in great detail how it would connect the locations it successfully bid
to serve.

Nonetheless, on August 10, 2022, the Wireline Competition Bureau rejected SpaceX’s long-form
application, even though the only changes from the short-form review were that SpaceX had lived
up to its commitments and that the Commission shifted its policy priorities with the change of
Administration. As it still does now, SpaceX vehemently disagreed with that decision and on
September 9, 2022, it filed with the Commission an Application for Review that pointed out the
numerous errors underlying the decision. But today, the Commission—in a 3-2 party-line vote—

1
“SpaceX” refers collectively to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary,
Starlink Services, LLC.

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Marlene H. Dortch
December 12, 2023
Page 2 of 3

denied SpaceX’s Application for Review, adopting many of the same critical errors that infected
the Bureau’s poorly reasoned decision in August 2022.

For instance, the Bureau’s decision arbitrarily penalized SpaceX—and only SpaceX—for not
meeting RDOF speed requirements years before SpaceX had any obligation to do so. The
arbitrariness of applying this unstated standard exclusively to SpaceX was only compounded by
the Bureau’s reliance on Ookla nationwide speed tests without any notice that it planned to use
such tests and even though those nationwide averages included areas that would not be served by
RDOF. Even so, Starlink likely recorded the fastest speeds of any operator in the locations eligible
for RDOF funds, which helped Ookla—the third party to whom the Bureau apparently delegated
speed tests—to conclude, “Starlink users in metro and nonmetro areas love Starlink, fixed
broadband users dislike their internet service providers.” 2 Starlink has also deployed its service in
advance of all RDOF deployment milestones and well ahead of most, if not all, RDOF awardees.
Even so, the Commission’s order now defends, and relies on, the Bureau’s arbitrary imposition on
SpaceX alone of RDOF speed requirements—based on unstated tests not suited to measure speeds
in RDOF territories—years before they were required.

The impacts of holding SpaceX to arbitrary standards not applied to other potential RDOF service
providers have become clear, especially as many of the Commission-approved RDOF “winners”
who were not held to these arbitrary standards are now saying they cannot meet their RDOF
obligations and are asking the Commission for more money, more time, and even exceptions to
consumer safeguards. Conversely, SpaceX already has the ability to provide service to its RDOF
locations at RDOF-required speeds, years before it would have been required to do so. SpaceX is
not aware of a single accepted RDOF participant that can make this claim.

Further, as this situation illustrates, the Bureau’s original decision, and the Commission’s
upholding that decision today, ignored SpaceX’s proven ability to quickly expand and upgrade its
network in all areas, while crediting other providers that had substantially lesser track records of
expanding their networks, especially into rural areas. Even as of August 2022, when the Bureau
rejected SpaceX’s long-form application, SpaceX had built an unmatched global broadband
network—including some 3,000 satellites on orbit—providing unprecedented speeds to customers
across America. And it was rapidly growing this network with more—and better—satellites and
ground infrastructure. To wit, just sixteen months later, SpaceX has grown the constellation to
include more than 5,000 satellites on orbit, along with a comprehensive ground infrastructure to
support it. And even as it is deploying unprecedented numbers of satellites, the satellites are
rapidly improving. In fact, in the time SpaceX’s Application for Review was pending, the
Commission approved SpaceX’s latest generation of satellites, which have four times the capacity
of the previous generation, capable of being launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket—the most
reliable rocket in the world today.

Enabled by this growth, Starlink now has more than 2.2 million customers around the world—of
which more than 1.3 million are in the United States—and is producing and selling tens of
thousands of user terminals each week. This growth is not slowing. As the Commission has seen,

2
Josh Fomon, New Speedtest Data Shows Starlink Users Love Their Provider, Ookla.com (May 8, 2023),
https://www.ookla.com/articles/starlink-hughesnet-viasat-performance-q1-2023 (emphasis in the original).

1155 F St NW, Suite 475, Washington, DC 20004 | phone 202.649.2700 | fax 202.649.2701 | spacex.com
Marlene H. Dortch
December 12, 2023
Page 3 of 3

with an ever-increasing launch cadence—to reach up to 100 launches this year—SpaceX will only
continue to rapidly deploy additional capacity into its network—in the form of more satellites and
better satellites—which will in turn provide faster broadband connectivity for our customers across
the world, including in every corner of the United States, years ahead of any RDOF deployment
milestones.

Starlink can now provide service to more people in more U.S. locations than any other satellite
internet service provider. This year alone, Starlink has nearly doubled the number of Americans
on the network, adding customers in all 50 states including the northernmost regions of Alaska.
Critically, Starlink can already provide high-speed, low-latency service in otherwise unserved
locations within days of a customer placing an order, an outcome that no other RDOF winner can
come close to matching. From tribal communities, to students, to health clinics in rural or remote
communities, the use cases are evident. In sum, it should have been clear to the Bureau in August
2022, and even more clear to the Commission today, that Starlink is capable of reaching the
Commission’s stated goal of ensuring that people in every corner of the country have an option for
high-speed, low-latency broadband.

It is unfortunate that the majority’s Order today repeats the mistakes made by the Bureau last year,
continuing to overlook the facts in the record. Worse, the Order ignores the developments over
the past year that confirmed the representations SpaceX made in its application and proved the
Bureau’s predictions wrong. But most concerning, the Order fails to explain how the Commission
will bridge the connectivity gap that the Order leaves open by excluding the one provider that can
rapidly accomplish this goal, while approving RDOF “winners” that have already acknowledged
they will not be able to do so. Put simply, if the Commission’s top priority—which is shared by
SpaceX—is to connect all Americans anywhere in the U.S., the Commission’s decision today runs
directly counter to that goal.

Nonetheless, SpaceX will not let the Bureau’s and Commission’s erroneous decisions diminish its
commitment to bringing high-speed, low-latency broadband service to Americans no matter where
they live, work, or go to school, and SpaceX continues to stand ready to work collaboratively with
the Bureau and the Commission to achieve this critically important national goal.

Sincerely,

Christopher Cardaci
Vice President, Legal

SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP.

1155 F St NW, Suite 475, Washington, DC 20004 | phone 202.649.2700 | fax 202.649.2701 | spacex.com