Congress' Next Coronavirus Fight: Broadband?

 As Congress contemplates a new package of Covid-19 countermeasures, digital connectivity is shaping up to be a significant negotiating point. Telecom provisions that could be in play: Democrats will push for billions of dollars to close the online Homework Gap and help low-income households with connectivity. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) also led her Democratic chairs in a renewed infrastructure push that would wrap in $86 billion for broadband efforts. Republicans, meanwhile, have called for regulatory relief to help telecommunications carriers build out and upgrade networks during the pandemic. Covid-19 stimulus cash could also go to the deployment of software-based radio access networks, a key issue in 5G rollouts and seen as a way to counter the hardware dominance of China’s Huawei.