Departing Broadband Official Warns of Shift to Musk's 'Worse' Satellite Internet

The director of the largest broadband program in US history bid farewell to his colleagues in a spirited email on March 16. Among other things, he 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. His farewell email to colleagues, first reported by ProPublica’s Craig Silverman in a Bluesky post, sounds the alarm on proposed changes to the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, most significantly shifting from a fiber-first approach to one that would favor satellite internet. "This is one thing we were going to do right by rural America, and it seems to be fading away," Feinman said in an interview with CNET. "There is still time to prevent that mistake from being made, but not a great deal of time." Locating local internet providers Until March 16, Feinman was the director of BEAD, a $42.5 billion fund passed as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act ... Read full article.