Image: Starlink
Starlink is set to receive a massive $661 million in government funding as all 50 U.S. states have now submitted their final proposals for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program. The updated total, first reported by PCMag, is more than double the roughly $300 million Starlink was slated to receive when only 36 states had filed their plans earlier this year.
According to numbers tracked by Wes Robinson of Eastex Telephone Cooperative, the BEAD program will allocate close to $1 billion to satellite broadband providers. That includes $660.6 million for SpaceX’s Starlink to serve 478,073 underserved locations across the country. Amazon Leo — Amazon’s rebranded Starlink rival — will collect another $302.4 million to connect 415,479 locations. Together, the two satellite providers will cover over 893,000 locations, or about 22.5% of all BEAD-funded underserved areas.
The PCMag report noted that several states — including California, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, and Wyoming — opted to use satellite internet to serve 40% or more of their locations, with Montana going as high as 65%. California alone will spend $164 million, with Starlink securing $63 million for nearly 46,000 locations while Amazon Leo gets close to $101 million for more than 92,000.
This funding marks a major win for both SpaceX and Amazon. Amazon Leo is still preparing for its commercial launch next year and currently has fewer than 200 satellites in orbit, compared to Starlink’s constellation of more than 8,000. For SpaceX, BEAD support provides another way to scale its U.S. customer base — but it comes after months of tension between the company and several state broadband offices.
SpaceX previously protested BEAD proposals from states such as Louisiana, Virginia, and Colorado, arguing that their plans unfairly sidelined satellite internet in favor of far more expensive fiber deployments. The company blasted Virginia’s proposal as a “massive waste of federal taxpayer money,” even asking authorities to intervene and force revisions to both Virginia and Louisiana’s plans.
BEAD rules require SpaceX and Amazon to provide free satellite dishes to eligible underserved areas and reserve network capacity, but it’s still unclear whether either provider intends to offer lower-cost plans under the program. Starlink recently launched a new $40-per-month Residential 100Mbps plan — its cheapest ever, and both companies are targeting gigabit-capable satellite service in the near future.
The BEAD program has so far approved 29 state proposals, with more approvals and budget finalizations expected in the months ahead. As the U.S. pushes toward wider broadband access — and with more than $21 billion in BEAD funds still unassigned — the spotlight is now firmly on how satellite connectivity will fit into America’s digital future.
