LEOs to See Awarded BSLs Decrease, Bigly

July 16 UPDATE: The New York School of Law crunched the numbers beyond my qualitative research to provide a more accurate number of LEOs dropping off the map to be 35%. I have adjusted the article accordingly.

Late last week I received a half-dozen calls or so from state broadband offices telling me that each lost approximately half of its LEO BSLs. Curious, I called more offices, and it would seem that every state was notified to remove roughly 50% of its LEO BSLs for one of two reasons, cited below. In actuality, the number of LEO BSLs being dropped off the BSL eligible map is 35%.

Apparently the newly released “Fabric v9” did a better job of eliminating BSLs that either weren’t really BSLs or that were already covered.

Reason 3 (above) says that, if it’s not a BSL, then they are taken off the state BSL lists. Structures like sheds, barns, fishing cabins, etc. Makes sense.

More curious to me is that the majority of removed BSLs - targeting only LEO - were removed because the location is already served or funded, reason 5.

There were more than 730K BSLs designated LEO in the post-BOB reality of final proposals. Losing 35% of these is either not connecting ~255K homes… or its simply a tough look for earlier versions of the fabric. The fabric is updated every six months, and as mentioned above, we are currently on version 9.

I don’t have a 60 Minutes type budget (neither does 60 Minutes, any longer), so I am not able to deploy a team of investigators to go door-to-door to the newly “served” BSLs and ask what’s changed in the past six months.

So, I have questions about these newly connected BSLs…

  • Did I miss significant rural broadband builds during the past six months? Builds to the hardest to reach, most expensive to reach BSLs?

  • It was reexamined and a face-saving measure was Reached because awarding SpaceX as much money as BOB did was a questionable political decision?

  • Has the connectivity fairy visited homes that put a Cat 5 cable under their pillow?


And, with these changes, would Amazon and SpaceX walk away from BEAD dollars altogether? After calling the BEAD program unsustainable, how does losing half the awards impact SpaceX’s decision? All this, and I didn’t mention the governmental oversight that LEO carriers would subject themselves that would carry through the year 2040 if they accept BEAD dollars!

The states were told that each location taken off the fabric can be appealed. To which I would ask my final question… Would states that never wanted LEO to be as prominent as it ended up being (thanks BOB), take the time to appeal locations? Let’s not forget that, to-date, satellite adoption is in single figures in areas that need connectivity.

What happened to BEAD’s original intent, “Broadband for All.” To reach this, some states could follow Wisconsin’s lead and designate state dollars to backfill LEO BSLs.

When I reached out to the NTIA for comment, I was told what the code meant, but not how we got there. “Already has service means the locations are no longer eligible for BEAD funding pursuant to Reason Code 3 (removal from the Fabric) following to the release of FCC Fabric v9” and “Based on the new version of the FCC map these locations have been removed.” 

Alright, but how did we get here, to the place where tens of thousands of BSLs are now connected.


Views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the official position of broadband.io or its affiliates. Contact Doug Adams at doug@broadbandmarketers.com with any comments or questions.