The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment ( BEAD ) program began as a historic opportunity to bridge the digital divide in the United States — and ended up becoming a multibillion-dollar fund that primarily benefits the world’s wealthiest tech giants. With $42.45 billion on the table, BEAD promised high-quality fiber to underserved communities across the U.S. by 2030. Instead, five years later, only a handful of Americans have seen a real connection upgrade, with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos among the biggest beneficiaries.
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BEAD was enacted in November 2021 as part of the Biden administration’s “ Build Back Better ” Act , aimed at addressing a long-standing problem: unequal internet access in rural and poor urban areas. The program ran alongside the Digital Equity Act ($2.75 billion) for digital skills training and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) ($14 billion) that subsidized internet access for low-income households. Even Republican governors, such as then-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson , hailed the program as a “historic investment in infrastructure.”
However, BEAD ’s implementation proved to be extremely slow. States and federal authorities spent the first few years trying to properly map coverage gaps — a process that revealed how inaccurate historical U.S. broadband maps had been. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers who had voted against the infrastructure bill, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz , began publicly criticizing the delays, calling the program “ classic government waste .”
BEAD and Starlink: The twist that no one expected
The rise of SpaceX ’s Starlink is the central factor that has upended BEAD ’s plans . Elon Musk ’s satellite network , which launched in 2015 and received FCC approval to launch 4,425 satellites in 2018, has grown into a truly global infrastructure. By 2026 , Starlink will operate 9,600 satellites in low-altitude orbit (LEO), representing 75% of all active LEO satellites worldwide. With over 10 million subscribers and revenue that is set to jump 50% year-over-year in 2025 to $11.4 billion , Starlink has transformed from a niche service to a dominant market force.
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A critical factor in this success was SpaceX ’s dramatic reduction in launch costs , from $50,000 per kilogram to $2,500 per kilogram , allowing for rapid fleet expansion. Starlink is now the sole broadband provider for millions of rural Americans—the very people BEAD was supposed to serve with fiber. This gives Musk enormous bargaining power with the federal authorities that administer BEAD funds .
Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos ’s Amazon Kuiper competitor is trying to get in on the action, but on a much smaller scale. Case in point: on May 28 , a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station during a test, before the Amazon Leo satellites had even reached the launch pad. The explosion served as an unintended metaphor for the state of BEAD as a whole: a program that was supposed to change the lives of millions of Americans is now burning to the ground.
Analysts have raised serious concerns about the long-term viability of the model. David Trainer (CEO, New Constructs ) estimates that SpaceX will need $1.1 trillion in sales by 2035 to justify its valuation. CFRA analyst Snyder called the AI growth projections “borderline comical,” while SpaceX is projecting 93% of its future revenue to come from AI — a market estimated to be worth $26.5 trillion by 2035.
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The BEAD is not just an American one — it has direct implications for how countries around the world, including Greece and the EU, design their own digital infrastructure policies. Starlink of the satellite broadband market creates a de facto monopoly that hinders competition and raises questions about the independence of national communications infrastructures.
