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SpaceX wins almost $1B to bring Starlink internet to half a million US homes, businesses
In a competition against hundreds of providers, many established, SpaceX’s Starlink constellation has come out of left field to win almost $1B from the FCC – funds that will help bring high-quality internet to hundreds of thousands of rural Americans.
Just 13 months after Starlink v1.0 flights began, SpaceX has successfully delivered almost 900 operational Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) over the course of 15 dedicated Falcon 9 launches. At least 700 of those ~265 kg (~580 lb) spacecraft have completed orbit raising maneuvers with krypton-fueled electric thrusters and are truly operational, serving an ever-growing number of Starlink internet beta customers across the northern US and southern Canda.
Out of 180 winning FCC auction bidders, SpaceX appears to be just one of two space-based internet providers despite the entrenched and monopolistic nature of existing rural satellite internet companies like Viasat and HughesNet – the latter of which did secure about $1.25 million to subsidize services at ~3700 locations. The main reason: designed to operate in LEO to ensure extremely low latencies, only SpaceX’s Starlink constellation was deemed eligible to compete for the majority of Auction 904, which prioritized high speeds and low latency (ping).
All told, SpaceX appears to be second only to one other competitor – a Charter Communications subsidiary – for the number of service locations it won during the FCC’s latest rural broadband auction. Based on a brief scan and analysis of official spreadsheets released by the regulatory agency, Charter won around $1.22 billion to subsidize service for 1.05 million rural American “locations” (i.e. homes, businesses, community centers, etc.), followed by SpaceX ($885 million for ~643,000 locations), and the Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium ($1.1 billion for ~618,500 locations).
LTD Broadband took home the biggest monetary prize, winning $1.32 billion to subsidize service at ~528,000 locations. While it’s difficult to compare on a level playing field due to the varying degrees of subsidy determined necessary by the FCC on a roughly case-by-case basis, SpaceX appears to be as cost-efficient or cheaper than the other two-dozen or so competitors that secured 100,000+ locations, averaging around $138 per site per year. For the entire auction, the average annual subsidy will be $176 per location.
According to the FCC, the funds will be evenly dispersed over the next 10 years, hopefully ensuring high-quality internet access for 5.2 million unserved rural homes and businesses and positively impacting the lives and communities of at least 10-20 million rural Americans.
Additionally, thanks to a very competitive auction, the FCC wound up committing only $9.2 billion of a total $16 billion available for this “Phase I” rural auction. Combined with funds reserved for future auctions, the FCC says it will be able to commit at least $11.2 billion to an upcoming Phase II auction, which will focus on underserved (“partially-served”) areas to complement Phase I’s focus on unserved locations.
To be clear, the ~$88 million SpaceX will receive annually for the next decade will go directly towards lowering the barrier to entry and cost of service for hundreds of thousands of Americans that currently have little to no reliable internet access. The company will be required to regularly hit buildout milestones, proving to the FCC that it’s on track to serve all ~543,000 awarded locations within six years of the first payment – but the faster, the better.
News
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Marie Nilsson, chair of Sweden’s IF Metall union and a prominent critic of Tesla, has left X and is urging audiences to follow the union on Meta’s Threads instead.
Tesla Sweden and IF Metall have been engaged in a bitter dispute for over two years now.
Anti-Tesla union leader exits X
In a comment to Dagens Arbete (DA), Nilsson noted that her exit from X is not formally tied to IF Metall’s long-running labor dispute with Tesla Sweden. Still, she stated that her departure is affected by changes to the platform under Elon Musk’s leadership.
“We have stayed because many journalists pick up news there. But as more and more people have left X, we have felt that the standard has now been reached on that platform,” she said.
Jesper Pettersson, press officer at IF Metall, highlighted that the union’s departure from X is only indirectly linked to Tesla Sweden and Elon Musk. “Indirectly it does, since there is a lot of evidence that his ownership has caused the change in the platform to be so significant.
“We have nevertheless assessed that the platform had value for reaching journalists, politicians and other opinion leaders. But it is a microscopic proportion of the public and our members who are there, and now that value has decreased,” Petterson added.
IF Metall sees Threads as an X alternative
After leaving X, IF Metall has begun using Threads, Meta’s alternative to the social media platform. The union described the move as experimental, noting that it is still evaluating how effective the platform will be for outreach and visibility.
Pettersson acknowledged that Meta also does not operate under Sweden’s collective bargaining model, but said the union sees little alternative if it wants to remain visible online.
“In a perfect world, all large international companies would be supporters of the Swedish model when they come here. But unfortunately, the reality is not like that. If we are to be visible at all in this social media world, we have to play by the rules of the game. The alternative would be to become completely invisible, and that would not benefit our members,” he said.
Despite many recent rumors and various reports, Elon Musk confirmed today that SpaceX is not developing a phone based on Starlink, not once, but twice.
Today’s report from Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and stated internal discussions have seen SpaceX executives mulling the idea of building a mobile device that would connect directly to the Starlink satellite constellation.
Musk did state in late January that SpaceX developing a phone was “not out of the question at some point.” However, He also said it would have to be a major difference from current phones, and would be optimized “purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.”
Not out of the question at some point. It would be a very different device than current phones. Optimized purely for running max performance/watt neural nets.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 30, 2026
While Musk said it was not out of the question “at some point,” that does not mean it is currently a project SpaceX is working on. The CEO reaffirmed this point twice on X this afternoon.
Musk said, “Reuters lies relentlessly,” in one post. In the next, he explicitly stated, “We are not developing a phone.”
Reuters lies relentlessly
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
We are not developing a phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 5, 2026
Musk has basically always maintained that SpaceX has too many things going on, denying that a phone would be in the realm of upcoming projects. There are too many things in the works for Musk’s space exploration company, most notably the recent merger with xAI.
SpaceX officially acquires xAI, merging rockets with AI expertise
A Starlink phone would be an excellent idea, especially considering that SpaceX operates 9,500 satellites, serving over 9 million users worldwide. 650 of those satellites are dedicated to the company’s direct-to-device initiative, which provides cellular coverage on a global scale.
Nevertheless, there is the potential that the Starlink phone eventually become a project SpaceX works on. However, it is not currently in the scope of what the company needs to develop, so things are more focused on that as of right now.
Tesla has added a notable improvement to its Dashcam feature after complaints from owners have pushed the company to make a drastic change.
Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations that Tesla owners have communicated regarding the Dashcam feature is the lack of ability to retain any more than 60 minutes of driving footage before it is overwritten.
It does not matter what size USB jump drive is plugged into the vehicle. 60 minutes is all it will hold until new footage takes over the old. This can cause some issues, especially if you were saving an impressive clip of Full Self-Driving or an incident on the road, which could be lost if new footage was recorded.
This has now been changed, as Tesla has shown in the Release Notes for an upcoming Software Update in China. It will likely expand to the U.S. market in the coming weeks, and was first noticed by NotaTeslaApp.
The release notes state:
“Dashcam Dynamic Recording Duration – The dashcam dynamically adjusts the recording duration based on the available storage capacity of the connected USB drive. For example, with a 128 GB USB drive, the maximum recording duration is approximately 3 hours; with a 1 TB or larger USB drive, it can reach up to 24 hours. This ensures that as much video as possible is retained for review before it gets overwritten.”
Tesla Adds Dynamic Recording
Instead of having a 60-minute cap, the new system will now go off the memory in the USB drive. This means with:
- 128 GB Jump Drive – Up to Three Hours of Rolling Footage
- 1TB Jump Drive – Up to 24 Hours of Rolling Footage
This is dependent on the amount of storage available on the jump drive, meaning that if there are other things saved on it, it will take away from the amount of footage that can be retained.
While the feature is just now making its way to employees in China, it will likely be at least several weeks before it makes its way to the U.S., but owners should definitely expect it in the coming months.
It will be a welcome feature, especially as there will now be more customization to the number of clips and their duration that can be stored.
Anti-Tesla union leader ditches X, urges use of Threads instead
Elon Musk confirms SpaceX is not developing a phone
