Margaret Harding McGill

Karl Rove isn't a registered lobbyist, but he is actively working Capitol Hill on one side of the 5G wireless fight that has split President Donald Trump's advisers. The veteran Republican operative has been contacting congressional offices to warn against bipartisan efforts to ban government control of the super-fast wireless technology. Rove also sat in on meetings with House and Senate Armed Services committee offices organized by a lobbyist for Rivada Networks, a politically connected company that wants the government to manage the sharing of 5G airwaves with wireless providers.

President Donald Trump's reelection team is backing a controversial plan to give the government a role in managing America's next-generation 5G wireless networks — bucking the free market consensus view of his own administration and sparking wireless industry fears of nationalization. The plan — embraced by Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale and adviser Newt Gingrich — would involve the government taking 5G airwaves and designing a system to allow for sharing them on a wholesale basis with wireless providers.

Sprint is withdrawing from tech and telecom trade group Incompas, of which Sprint is a founding member after Incompas publicly came out against the company’s proposed merger with T-Mobile. “Given this fundamental shift toward protecting incumbents from a new competitive threat, Sprint can no longer be a member of this organization,” said Sprint’s Charles McKee, who also resigned from Incompas’ board of directors as part of the move.

As a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, Geoffrey Starks said he hopes to make a leading priority of closing that digital divide — that is, the gulf between those with internet access and those without. It's one item on a consumer welfare-centered policy wishlist he said he hopes to push, alongside holding wrongdoers like illegal robocallers accountable and expanding the use of telehealth services. “I’m going to be focused on real solutions,” Commissioner Starks said. “I think everyday Americans expect that as well.

Before the Senate voted to bring the Federal Communications Commission back to full strength, the White House informally discussed a potential slot on the commission with Senate Commerce Committee aide Crystal Tully. The conversations came amid a flurry of speculation about FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s future at the agency, though he said in November he expects to stay on for the next two years. The talks were preliminary, given that it’s unclear when a Republican seat will open up. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly’s term expires in June, but he can stay on as late as the end of 2020. 

Google, Amazon, and Snap wasted little time in 2018 in trying to cultivate the new crop of enforcers at the Federal Trade Commission, an agency that will play a key role in any Washington crackdown on the tech industry. The companies reached out to schmooze the four FTC commissioners appointed by President Donald Trump soon after they they were sworn into office in May, according to 73 pages of email communications obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Geoffrey Starks, who sailed through a Senate Commerce Committee confirmation vote with unanimous backing, had seemed poised June 28 to assume a vacant Federal Communications Commission seat in a Senate vote by unanimous consent, paired with current-FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s nomination for a second term. But despite optimism from Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD), the nominations didn't go through.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is arguing that regulators should deal with an explosion of merger and acquisition activity by applying “greater vigilance and vigor” to the exercise of antitrust law.

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly privately slammed the Trump administration’s competence over a proposal to nationalize the country’s 5G wireless network. “That is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Commissioner O’Rielly wrote to a telecommunication attorney in a Jan 28 e-mail obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

President Donald Trump will nominate Geoffrey Starks to fill the Democratic seat on the Federal Communications Commission being vacated by Mignon Clyburn. Here’s what you need to know about Starks, an assistant chief in the FCC’s enforcement bureau: