Ever since President Trump and Elon Musk had their dramatic falling out, Trump has canceled tax subsidies for electric vehicles, threatened to cut SpaceX’s $22 billion in federal contracts, and even suggested that he would “take a look” at deporting Musk.
All of which shows that Musk was taking a big gamble by crossing Trump.
And while it may not signal another act of retribution, the Federal Aviation Administration told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday that it had no plans to replace its telecommunication contracts it has with Verizon Communications (VZ) or L3Harris Technologies (LHAX) with the Starlink unit of Musk’s SpaceX.
"The FAA is not aware of any effort by SpaceX to assume the (telecommunications) contracts. Nor has FAA considered replacing the awardees of those contracts with SpaceX," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a letter to lawmakers that was seen by Reuters.
"FAA would not use Starlink (or any satellite service) as the sole communications technology for safety-critical air traffic services."
Congress has approved $12.5 billion to overhaul the FAA’s air traffic control system, which includes billions of dollars to upgrade its telecommunications equipment.
Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday that more than 90% of the telecom funds would be used to replace copper with fiber, according to Reuters.
"That was the mission, not some competitive advantage to Starlink," Duffy said.
Democrats in Congress had previously questioned whether the FAA would cancel its $2.4 billion contract with Verizon and give it to Starlink – particularly given Musk’s role in the Trump administration at the time.
Although Musk had criticized the FAA’s telecommunication system, SpaceX insisted in a post on X in March that it was not looking to usurp Verizon’s contract with the aviation administration.
“Starlink is a possible partial fix to an aging system,” the company wrote. “There is no effort or intent for Starlink to ‘take over’ any existing contract.”
SpaceX added that it had “signed a loan agreement with L3Harris, providing Starlink kits and service free of charge for an initial testing period.”
“Beyond this initial testing deployment, SpaceX is working with L3Harris and the FAA to identify instances where Starlink could serve as a long-term infrastructure upgrade for aviation safety,” the company said.
The FAA indicated in May that it would be replacing antiquated telecommunications with new fiber at wireless and satellite technologies at over 4,600 sites, 25,000 new radios, and 475 new voice switches.
“Decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age,” Duffy said at the time. “Building this new system is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now.”
Verizon’s stock is up 3.1% YTD.
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