Top Broadband Director Warns of Musk Handout in Scathing Email Exit

The director of the largest federal broadband program in US history bid farewell to his colleagues in a spirited email Sunday morning. Among other things, Evan Feinman warned that millions of rural Americans could get stuck with slow internet speeds if rules are changed to favor Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink. Until March 16, Feinman was the director of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, a $42.5 billion fund passed as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. In the email, first reported by ProPublica’s Craig Silverman in a Bluesky post, Feinman sounds the alarm on proposed changes to BEAD. “The new administration seems to want to make changes that ignore the clear direction laid out by Congress, reduce the number of American homes and businesses that get fiber connections, and increase the number that get satellite connections,” Feinman wrote. Locating local internet providers By satellite, he means Starlink. Amazon’s Project Ku ... Read full article.