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ViaSat asks FCC to halt SpaceX Starlink launches because it can’t compete
Under the hollow pretense of concern for the environment, Starlink satellite internet competitor ViaSat has asked the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to force SpaceX to stop Starlink launches and threatened to take the matter to court if it doesn’t get its way.
A long-time satellite internet provider notorious for offering expensive, mediocre service with strict bandwidth restrictions, ViaSat has also been engaged in a years-long attempt to disrupt, slow down, and even kill SpaceX’s Starlink constellation by any means necessary. That includes fabricating nonsensical protests, petitioning the FCC dozens of times, and – most recently – threatening to sue the agency and federal government as the company becomes increasingly desperate.
The reason is simple: even compared to SpaceX’s finicky, often-unreliable Starlink Beta service, ViaSat’s satellite internet is almost insultingly bad. With a focus on serving the underserved and unserved, SpaceX’s Starlink beta users – many of which were already relying on ViaSat or HughesNet internet – have overwhelmingly described the differences as night and day.
In simple terms, if given the option, it’s extraordinarily unlikely that a single public ViaSat subscriber would choose the company’s internet over SpaceX’s Starlink. While Starlink currently requires subscribers to pay a substantial upfront cost – ~$500 – for the dish used to access the satellite network, ViaSat internet costs at least as much per month. Currently, new subscribers would pay a bare minimum of ~$113 per month for speeds up to 12 Mbps (akin to DSL) and an insultingly small 40GB data cap. For a 60GB cap and 25 Mbps, subscribers will pay more than $160 per month after a three-month promotion.
With a fixed cost of $99 per month, truly unlimited data, and uncapped speeds that vary from 50 to 200+ Mbps, any ViaSat “silver” subscriber would receive far better service by switching to Starlink and save enough money to pay off the $500 dish in less than a year. While Starlink is currently in beta and often unstable and unreliable as a result, users continue to notice major improvements in speeds and uptime as SpaceX works to continuously improve the network.
In the US, ViaSat has less than 600,000 household internet subscribers, all of which are almost certainly liable to switch to better alternatives. Short of local and state governments actually standing up for their citizens and forcing monopolistic ground-based internet service providers (ISPs) to fairly serve rural customers, Starlink is currently the only real hope for rural Americans who are tired of settling for second-class internet service.
ViaSat began its latest push to hamstring a looming competitor with regulation when it asked the FCC to perform an environmental review of Starlink’s impact last December. The FCC unsurprisingly failed to heed the company’s spurious, nakedly self-serving demands. Since then, the FCC approved a long-standing SpaceX request to modify its Starlink constellation by lowering thousands of satellites, thus improving service and drastically decreasing the debris risk posed by satellite failures, which would take a few years to reenter from 550 kilometers instead of decades for spacecraft orbiting at 1000+ kilometers.
To a very small extent, there are some real questions worth asking about the environmental impact of megaconstellations. A few recent studies have begun to do so, though it’s such a new field of inquiry that virtually nothing is known with any confidence. However, ViaSat is transparently disinterested in the actual environmental impact given that its petition for the FCC to immediately halt all Starlink launches focuses on Starlink alone and not competitor OneWeb – also in the process of launching satellites – or prospective constellations being developed by Telesat and Amazon.
What ViaSat actually wants is for the FCC to catastrophically hamstring Starlink, thus saving the profit-focused company from having to actually work to compete with an internet service provider that is all but guaranteed to capture most of its subscribers on an even playing field. Incredibly, ViaSat actually removes its greenwashing mask in the very same FCC request [PDF], stating that it “will suffer competitive injury” if Starlink is allowed to “compete directly with Viasat in the market for satellite broadband services.”
News
Tesla lands new partnership with Uber as Semi takes center stage
Tesla and Uber will work together, using the company’s all-electric Semi, to make sustainable Class 8 electric trucks more affordable with three main strategies: Subsidized Pricing, Predictable Growth, and Optimization of Utilization.
The Tesla Semi has led to a new partnership between the company and Uber, as the two are launching a program that aims to revolutionize logistics by making sustainable commercial vehicles more accessible.
Uber announced on Tuesday that it was planning to launch the Dedicated EV Fleet Accelerator Program in a new partnership with Tesla. Uber’s Freight division is mainly responsible for the new program, which it calls a “first-of-its-kind buyer’s program designed to make electric freight more affordable and accessible by addressing key adoption barriers.”
Tesla and Uber will work together, using the company’s all-electric Semi, to make sustainable Class 8 electric trucks more affordable with three main strategies: Subsidized Pricing, Predictable Growth, and Optimization of Utilization.
- Subsidized Price: Fleets purchasing Tesla Semis through this program will receive a subsidy on the purchase price.
- Predictable Growth: Fleets will integrate their Tesla Semis into Uber Freight’s dedicated solutions for shippers for a pre-determined period. This creates an opportunity for carriers to forecast revenue with confidence, while shippers gain consistent access to reliable, zero-emission capacity.
- Optimize Utilization: Uber Freight taps into its extensive freight network to match carriers with consistent, high-quality freight from our strong shipper base—helping ensure the addition of these Tesla Semis stay fully utilized and carriers see dedicated, real, measurable returns from the start
Tesla will work directly with interested companies to iron out technical details about the Semi, as well as its cost of ownership based on the tailored needs of their business. Fleets can expect savings on the first day, Uber says, as they will avoid diesel fuel costs and reduced maintenance, a widely known advantage of EVs.
Uber announced that it had partnered with select carriers to pilot the Dedicated EV Fleet Accelerator Program prior to its launch:
“During the 2-month pilot program, the Tesla Semis showcased both reliability and efficiency for Uber Freight’s shipper network. Over 394 hours of drive time, carriers covered 12,377 miles. With an average net energy consumption of just 1.72 kWh per mile and only 60 hours of total charge time, these results highlight the operational viability of Tesla Semis on demanding freight lanes. “
In its press release launching the program, Uber effectively highlights how the use of the Semi can impact a company’s margins and profitability through fuel savings, reduced maintenance costs, and lower total cost of ownership.
This is something that turns so many people away from gas cars and toward EVs, so it’s no surprise that Uber wanted to emphasize this point on a larger scale with a company that utilizes a fleet of vehicles.
Tesla Semi shows strong results in ArcBest’s real-world freight trial
Tesla has been experimenting with a select group of companies, as well. It partnered with PepsiCo. several years ago, in an effort to launch a pilot program for the Semi. It had excellent results, showing higher efficiency, lower costs, and an exceptional ability to handle long runs.
Drivers have had a lot of positive things to say:
The Semi will enter mass production next year, but we anticipate that some companies will commit to Uber’s new platform well before then.
Tesla will recall Powerwall 2 units in Australia after a handful of property owners reported fires that caused “minor property damage.” The fires were attributed to cells used by Tesla in the Powerwall 2.
Tesla Powerwall is a battery storage unit that retains energy from solar panels and is used by homeowners and businesses to maintain power in the event of an outage. It also helps alleviate the need to rely on the grid, which can help stabilize power locally.
Powerwall owners can also enroll in the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program, which allows them to sell energy back to the grid, helping to reduce energy bills. Tesla revealed last year that over 100,000 Powerwalls were participating in the program.
Tesla announces 100k Powerwalls are participating in Virtual Power Plants
The Australia Competition and Consumer Commission said in a filing that it received several reports from owners of fires that led to minor damage. The Australian government agency did not disclose the number of units impacted by the recall.
The issue is related to the cells, which Tesla sources from a third-party company.
Anyone whose Powerwall 2 unit is impacted by the recall will be notified through the Tesla app, the company said.
Tesla is launching Cybertruck orders in a new market, but there’s a bit of a catch.
The Cybertruck was launched in the Middle East earlier this year, as Tesla launched the ability to place a reservation for the all-electric pickup in the United Arab Emirates. It would be the first market outside of North America that would have the ability to place an order for the Cybertruck.
Tesla confirms Cybertruck will make its way out of North America this year
Other markets where the vehicle has been widely requested, like Europe and Asia, have still not approved the vehicle to be sold to the public, mostly because of size and design restrictions.
However, in the UAE, Tesla is opening up the ability for those who placed reservations for the vehicle to finally put in their order. The Order Configurator is only available to those who have already placed a reservation; it is not yet available to the public.
Tesla said it would open up the public online configurator across the Middle East in the coming weeks:
If you’re in the UAE and you have a Cybertruck reservation, you can now order your new truck
The public will get access in the coming weeks. https://t.co/KJaP7NEfiT
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 16, 2025
The UAE is not the only country that will have access to the Cybertruck, as fans in other Middle Eastern countries will also be able to place orders soon. Tesla announced back in April that Saudi Arabia and Qatar would also have Cybertruck deliveries.
These vehicles will be built at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas plant just outside of Austin, as Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Shanghai, two factories located in the same hemisphere as the Middle East, do not have established lines for Cybertruck production.
As for the other markets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted that the company could develop a smaller Cybertruck for those markets, as he admitted that in the long term, it likely made sense to build a more compact version for regions where roads are traditionally tighter.
Elon Musk hints at smaller Tesla Cybertruck version down the road
There has been no evidence of Tesla developing this more compact version, but it could eventually happen.
Tesla lands new partnership with Uber as Semi takes center stage
Tesla recalls Powerwall 2 units in Australia
Tesla launches Cybertruck orders in a new market with a catch
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