SpaceX Starlink, by Elon Musk, in talks with the UK Gigabit Project

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in talks with the UK for the company’s Starlink satellite unit to gain funding as part of the government’s new $ 6.9 billion Internet infrastructure program, CNBC confirmed .

UK Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman recently met with Starlink’s leadership, a person familiar with the talks told CNBC as part of ongoing talks with various technology communications companies for “Project Gigabit” plan that started on Friday.

Sky News first reported on the talks and noted that UK Secretary of Culture Oliver Dowden believes Starlink is one of the best options for providing internet service to hard-to-reach areas across the country.

SpaceX did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the discussions, while the UK government declined to comment.

Starlink is the company’s capital-intensive project to build an interconnected Internet network with thousands of satellites, known to the space industry as a constellation, designed to provide high-speed Internet to consumers in any part of the world. planet.

The company has launched more than 1,200 satellites into orbit so far, and in October began deploying the early Starlink service in a public beta that now extends to customers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. New Zealand, with a service priced at $ 99. a month in the US

The UK on Friday launched the first phase of the Gigabit Project, which is the government’s $ 6.9 billion (£ 5 billion) program to improve the internet service of more than a million homes and businesses.

The first phase of the project will bring together the solutions proposed by companies with various delivery methods, including satellites and other “high-altitude platforms”.

The Gigabit project represents the potential for SpaceX to add more government grant earnings to Starlink, as the company received nearly $ 900 million in federal grants late last year under the Commission’s rural broadband auction. Federal Communications.

The FCC awarded SpaceX the fourth-largest auction fund for $ 9.2 billion, with grants to be distributed in monthly payments over the next decade. But the SpaceX award has been received in protest by other U.S. broadband providers, particularly DISH Network, and other Internet service providers have dismissed Starlink as a “scientific experiment” with “completely unproven technology.” “.

SpaceX has responded, telling the FCC that complaints from other vendors have “no valid basis” and constitute a way to “restrict a competitor.”

Meanwhile, SpaceX has continued to expand Starlink’s service, with the public beta gaining more than 10,000 users in its first three months. Musk’s company plans to expand the Starlink service beyond homes, asking the FCC to extend its connectivity authorization to “moving vehicles,” so Starlink could be used with everything from airplanes to large ships and trucks.

SpaceX also signed an agreement with NASA in January, the U.S. space agency revealed last week, to cooperate on how to avoid collisions with the company’s Starlink satellites.

With the company adding more spacecraft into orbit each month as its rockets launch 60 Starlink satellites at a time, NASA said it needed to “increase interaction and partnership” to ensure safe “in-orbit” operations. .

“NASA has agreed not to maneuver in the event of a possible conjunction to ensure that the parties do not inadvertently maneuver with each other. NASA will operate on the basis that the autonomous maneuverability of Starlink satellites will attempt to maneuver to avoid conjunction with NASA. assets, and that NASA will maintain its planned trajectory unless SpaceX reports otherwise, ”the agreement said.

The agency also said it will work with SpaceX to “share technical knowledge and lessons learned” to reduce the brightness of satellites.

The company has previously announced changes to the satellites to decrease brightness, following complaints from astronomers given the growing presence of Starlink satellites in the sky.