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The other challenge for LEO is they don't get
to reduce their Letter of Credit or Bond amounts until they have
subscribers that meet milestones (not just having covered BSLs,
but actual subscribers). So they'll be motivated to get people to
sign up, whatever that looks like. On 10/2/25 10:30 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote:
But do they assume 100% take rate and proactively launch sats? Or assume "reserve" means "prioritize", and only launch more sats if needed?This says Maine only had 4% of eligible locations get their free Starlink terminals: https://www.benton.org/blog/what-do-we-know-about-leo-bead-bids Also with Kuiper just starting to launch, there isn't an existing customer base. So worst case, if BEAD take rate is higher than expected, they stop taking non BEAD customers in that area until they get more satellites in orbit. -----Original Message----- From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Mike Hammett Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2025 11:22 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how will BEAD subsidize LEO? Well, it's not necessarily money for nothing. When I looked at one state and the number of BSLs they applied for, they would have needed to launch hundreds of satellites and build out multiple earth stations to have the capacity on hand to serve them. They needed (I think) seven satellites dedicated to that state at all times, which means a ton more in flight. -- Mike Hammett ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ken Hohhof" <[email protected]> To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2025 11:11:29 AM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how will BEAD subsidize LEO? If that’s the whole deal, customers would pay the same monthly price as people in a non BEAD subsidized area. We can compete with that. Reserving capacity seems like money for nothing. https://youtu.be/wTP2RUD_cL0 From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Jesse DuPont Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2025 10:47 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how will BEAD subsidize LEO? In case you've not read this, appendix B of the public notice (link below) describes how the money can flow from NTIA to the state to the LEO operator. Key highlights: States will pay LEO operators to reserve capacity in the network for their state's BSLs (page 19) The cost of the CPE must be free to subscriber (the first one, anyway) (page 21) https://www.ntia.gov/sites/default/files/2025-06/bead-restructuring-policy-notice.pdf On 10/2/25 9:32 AM, Bill Prince wrote: My personal opinion is that Kuiper won't actually get "done". It will be partially baked in a couple of years, and they will pull the plug around 2028. As of now, I think they have fewer than 100 sats in the sky. bp <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> On 10/1/2025 9:49 PM, Jason McKemie wrote: You think it will be done in 2 years? I don't think they will start building until around then, but I guess we'll see how it goes.. On Wed, Oct 1, 2025 at 2:31 PM Ken Hohhof < [email protected] > wrote: Has anyone figured this out? Other than free hardware for any resident at the location for 10 years, I can’t find what else BEAD will pay for. What about installation? And are the monthly fees discounted? I assume it varies by state, but what’s typically being done? The reason I ask is now that my state’s proposed awards have been publicized in the form of a map, I can see where they are subsidizing fiber and where it will be Amazon Kuiper. This figures bigly into our future plans. Most areas will get fiber, and while they have 4 years to get it done, I think most of it will be done in the next 2 years. I’m not going to try and deploy fiber anywhere that is getting BEAD fiber. It’s another matter where private money has been overbuilding cable companies in town that charge north of $100/mo. They also knew they wouldn’t face BEAD fiber because the locations weren’t unserved. But the areas where there were no bids to do fiber for below whatever the threshold was for LEO, probably you’d have to be a fool to do fiber in those areas with 100% your own money. So that’s where we’d focus any WISP expansion or upgrades, and what we’d be competing with is subsidized Amazon Kuiper. If we’d be competing with a free satellite receiver, that’s entirely possible. If it’s 100 Mbps for $10/mo, that’s another matter. -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com |
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
