Ken - in Michigan, Amazon was awarded $600 per location and SpaceX awards varied from $1500 to $2600 per location. Why they both won some, no idea...
On Thu, Oct 2, 2025 at 11:54 AM Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > > I am no fan of either Musk or Bezos, but my opinion is that both approaches > have worked. SpaceX has been more move fast and break things. Kuiper has > been more move slow and get it mostly right. Both of them have lots of money > to burn. So I wouldn’t count Amazon out. I would have been more aligned > with your opinion before their recent successes. > > > > It does have kind of a Sirius vs XM feel, where I wonder if we need both of > them. > > > > Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall at the state broadband offices > where they decided how to score the wireless and LEO bids after the Benefit > of the Bargain reset? Did Illinois go with Kuiper instead of Starlink > because Amazon’s bid was lower? Did they just want to screw with Musk for > using his political clout to change the rules? Did they say let’s throw some > money at Amazon and see what they can do, after all, it’s not like people > can’t get Starlink right now without BEAD? Similarly, I see some smallish > local WISP/FISP companies got some sizable fiber awards, they seem like > companies I can identify with and am happy for their success, but I wonder if > they are like the dog that caught the school bus. Luckily they seem to be > young pups who will be excited about catching a school bus. > > > > From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Bill Prince > Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2025 10:33 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how will BEAD subsidize LEO? > > > > 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
