ITIF: LEO Is a Viable BEAD Offering, Despite Critics
Arguments that low earth orbit broadband can't meet BEAD capacity requirements and that LEO lacks scalability are incorrect, Joe Kane, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy, wrote this week on the group's website. Kane said LEO service…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
can exceed 100 Mbps downloads, which is more than adequate for consumer use. While LEO upload speeds fall short of 20 Mbps in some areas, wireline upload speeds in those same areas "are precisely zero; the alternative fiber networks don’t exist," he said. Kane said LEO networks are scalable as they launch new satellites and account for the cost to replace them over time. Any BEAD fund awards come with enforceable obligations to meet performance standards, he said. Criticisms that LEO broadband is more expensive wrongly compare urban wireline rates to rural Starlink rates, as consumer prices will always be lower in more densely populated areas, according to Kane. He said absent USF funding, rural wireline broadband would be more expensive than SpaceX's Starlink service.