There's fines and no evidence SpaceX was getting billions. The award amount is public and paid monthly

Sorry, I thought the award stated was annual, reading it more closely I see that it's not.

The amount everyones quoting is the full fat amount over the life of the contract.

You have to show you can do most of it yourself i.e raise the money.

After a %age deployment the FCC checks if you've met the deployment timeline and checks your speeds then starts paying you and keeps testing as you deploy according to the timeline.

You don't get a dime upfront.