Texas has frozen billions of dollars in federal broadband grants after lawmakers accused the state of rewriting the rules to favour Elon Musk's Starlink, raising fears that rural households promised fast fibre will be pushed onto slower, pricier satellite instead.
The Texas Broadband Development Office placed a temporary hold on all payments under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) programme on 11 August, telling grant recipients the freeze would stand 'until further notice'. The office gave no public reason for the move.
