I'm not sure how the projects that received BEAD funding in Illinois are compliant with the BOTB-round requirements. A vast majority of the projects I looked at are FTTH, which is simply not compatible with the new rules that were implemented when the BOTB requirements were put into place - that is obviously assuming that there were any other technologies competing. It's also pretty interesting that, as far as I can tell, there were zero terrestrial fixed wireless projects approved.
On Fri, Dec 19, 2025 at 1:06 PM Ken Hohhof <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes, Illinois preliminary BEAD plan has all satellite going to Amazon > Kuiper Leo. Not approved by NTIA yet. And no they don’t haven enough > sats in orbit yet to even offer commercial service. > > > > It’s not clear to me what about Amazon’s bid scored better than SpaceX to > win the Illinois satellite locations. The state broadband office is run by > technocrats, I doubt they would do it just to spite Elon for forcing them > to allocate money to satellite rather than fiber. If anything, they would > do the politically expedient thing to help get approval from NTIA. I doubt > they really consider the satellite part of the BEAD program as > accomplishing much. Let’s face it, those people can get Starlink now if > they are willing to pay $80/mo. Maybe that factored into the decision, > Starlink needs a competitor to drive prices down, so let’s help Amazon Leo > get going. > > > > *From:* AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Bill Prince > *Sent:* Friday, December 19, 2025 12:52 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] $40 Starlink tier already gone > > > > What I suspect is that they will sell the $120 and $80 plans in an area as > long as there is capacity, or at least capacity that no one notices is > below what's advertised. > > Once the higher-priced plans are saturated, they might offer the $40 plan > in an area, or shoot up another 29 sats to fill in the area. They are > launching ~~ 100 sats a week it seems. What's that? 5,000 a year? > > Local operators are noticing that Kuiper is winning grants in some of > their service areas. What's up with that? Do they even have 100 birds > flying? > > > > bp > > <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> > > On 12/19/2025 10:35 AM, Robert wrote: > > I would think they found out that the customers were downloading just as > much data just using more network time to do it. It's a false premise that > the "extra" b/w in your network can be used for low speed customers, they > take just as many or more timeslices... > > On 12/19/25 9:07 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote: > > People with the $40 service who bumped it up to $80 or $120 for the > holidays may get a surprise when they find out they can’t go back in > February. > > > > The ones who dropped down to $40 while it was available may have been > surprised to find out that 100 Mbps is just fine and they didn’t need 250 > or 400 Mbps. Interesting also that the 100 Mbps plan is the same as Lite > but with a 100 Mbps speed limit. Lite vs Standard is described as > de-prioritization not a speed limit per se. > > > > So Josh was probably right they got rid of that plan because $120 > customers were turning into $40 customers. Somebody at Starlink marketing > said oops, why did we think that was a good idea. > > > > *From:* AF <[email protected]> <[email protected]> *On Behalf > Of *Bill Prince > *Sent:* Friday, December 19, 2025 10:44 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] $40 Starlink tier already gone > > > > Sounds like Uber surge pricing. > > > > bp > > <part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> > > On 12/19/2025 7:17 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote: > > That’s the thing, it’s location dependent. And not in the sense of we > only have enough capacity in your area for Lite service. More like we > don’t have excess capacity in your area so we aren’t going to try too hard > to get your business. > > > > Checking right now for my home address (Chicago suburbs), I see the $40 > service is not being offered, it was a couple weeks ago. But it says I can > get deprioritized 250 Mbps Residential Lite for $80/mo or 400+ Mbps > Residential for $120/mo. Both say $0 hardware cost, but $21.65 due today > which I’m guessing is maybe shipping? > > > > It says if you cancel you have to return the rented equipment. It used to > say a 12 month contract was required to get the $0 hardware. > > > > Starlink prices and speeds are like airline tickets or market price > lobster, it varies depending on location and what day you check. > > > > Service plans are explained here: > > https://starlink.com/legal/documents/DOC-1728-44881-79?regionCode=US > > > > > > *From:* AF <[email protected]> <[email protected]> *On Behalf > Of *Josh Luthman > *Sent:* Thursday, December 18, 2025 10:03 PM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> <[email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] $40 Starlink tier already gone > > > > At that price one would hope...but it's location dependent. > > > > On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 4:07 PM Steve Jones <[email protected]> > wrote: > > doesnt the 120 a month customer get free equipment now though? > > > > On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 12:41 PM Josh Luthman <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Because their $120/mo customers turned into $40/mo customers. > > > > On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 12:39 PM Nate Burke <[email protected]> wrote: > > Had to drive up sales before the end of the quarter, and met the quota? > > On 12/18/2025 11:18 AM, Ken Hohhof wrote: > > Not my imagination. > > > https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-quietly-removes-40-per-month-starlink-plan-in-the-us > > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > > > > > > > > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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