Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldDonald Trump\u2019s commerce secretary touted Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink to federal officials in charge of a $42bn rural broadband programme, raising new questions about the billionaire White House adviser\u2019s conflicts of interest.In a private meeting in the Herbert Hoover building near the White House this month, Howard Lutnick told civil servants at the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (Bead) programme to increase the project\u2019s use of satellite connectivity \u2014 over fibre-optic cable \u2014 and singled out Musk\u2019s provider, Starlink.\u201cHe mentioned Musk by name, he asked if we had been talking with Elon,\u201d Evan Feinman, who until Friday was the director of Bead, told the Financial Times in an interview.\u201cThe clear thrust of his directive was to increase the amount of satellite being used regardless of any other considerations,\u201d Feinman added.The conversation is the latest example of how Musk, who gave over $250mn to Trump\u2019s 2024 presidential campaign, could benefit from his influential role. The White House recently installed Starlink in its own grounds to improve WiFi connectivity, spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt recently told The New York Times.\u00a0Republicans have long criticised Bead \u2014 part of Lutnick\u2019s commerce department \u2014 over what they claim are burdensome rules that have hampered the broadband rollout to remote communities. Musk, who now oversees a White House cost-cutting initiative, last year called the programme an \u201coutrageous waste of taxpayer money\u201d.Lutnick, a Musk ally, this month blamed \u201cwoke mandates [and] favouritism towards certain technologies\u201d for the delays, adding that his department was \u201crevamping\u201d Bead to take a \u201ctech-neutral approach\u201d.A Trump administration official pushed back on any \u201cimplicit notion\u201d that Lutnick changed the programme to favour Starlink or any other company. \u201cBead\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009didn\u2019t make a dent in expanding rural broadband,\u201d said the official. \u201cThis administration \u2014 which was elected with resounding support from rural Americans \u2014 is committed to actually delivering on this initiative that the Biden administration totally dropped the ball on.\u201dMusk and Starlink did not immediately respond to requests for comment.For all but the most remote communities, satellite connectivity was neither cost-effective or durable, Feinman said. \u201cFibre-optic cable remains operable for decades and decades at extraordinarily low maintenance and operation costs, and offers speeds today that can meet all current needs and likely those of the future,\u201d Feinman said. \u201cStarlink simply can\u2019t.\u201dThe Wall Street Journal reported this month that Lutnick\u2019s planned overhaul of Bead could lead to Starlink winning up to $20bn in contracts \u2014 roughly five times the amount it was expected to receive under Bead\u2019s current set-up.Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democratic lawmaker, has labelled the moves \u201ca blatant conflict of interest\u201d.\u201cI am concerned that the Trump administration\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009[is pushing] changes that would directly benefit Elon Musk by funnelling billions of taxpayer dollars to his Starlink service,\u201d she told a congressional hearing this month.Starlink is available across the US for a cost of about $120 a month, making it far more costly than fibre-optic broadband. The service can also slow down in areas with many users.Lutnick\u2019s plans to overhaul Bead could complicate the rollout of broadband in three states with most advanced plans for finally providing service to rural communities: Louisiana, Nevada and Delaware. None has chosen Starlink so far, instead favouring Verizon and Comcast, Amazon\u2019s Kuiper and local companies.\u201cDelaware is awaiting specific guidance from the Department of Commerce,\u201d a state spokesperson said. Louisiana is already planning to use fibre for 95 per cent of its locations. In January, state official Veneeth Iyengar said that they \u201cfully expect\u201d to break ground on projects in the next 100 days.\u201cWe\u2019re ready to work with the administration on significant process improvements to put shovels in the ground,\u201d Iyengar told the FT on Tuesday.Feinman said the increased use of Starlink would be a distraction from the programme\u2019s important mission.\u00a0\u201cMusk, when Tesla opens up a facility, doesn\u2019t put it on Starlink, he gets fibre,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need fibre in your town to have an economic future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldDonald Trump\u2019s commerce secretary touted Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink to federal officials in charge of a $42bn rural broadband programme, raising new questions about the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-245919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}