The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that up to $450 million in funding will be made available for software-focused Open RAN innovation. This is the third Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. This NOFO will invest in software solutions to drive adoption of open and interoperable wireless networks. The goal is to fund projects that will unlock new Open RAN-enabled revenue streams and reduce the cost of integrating equipment from multiple vendors. This third round of funding targets two areas:

• Development of software solutions that use Open RAN innovations to generate value for industry verticals such as utilities, mining, manufacturing and others.
• Development of software solutions that reduce the cost and complexity of multi-vendor integration through automation.

The headline isn’t entirely accurate because of the use of the word lien. However, the government maintains what it calls a property trust relationship in assets constructed with federal grant dollars, which is similar to, but not the same as a bank lien. In the case of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, the government interest in grant assets would be held and managed by each State Broadband Office, under the auspices of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The trust will last through the useful life of the asset, as determined by the government. The useful lives of assets for BEAD are not the same as the depreciation lives of the assets. NTIA has set the longest life for BEAD at 10 years. This is not a new rule and has been applied to other federal grant programs. One of the biggest consequences of these rules is that some lenders are uncomfortable with the government’s interest in the assets, and some lenders will balk at lending to an internet service provider when they find out about this.

The Healey-Driscoll Administration and Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) within the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) announced $6,326,054 in awards to 3,512 affordable housing units across nine Massachusetts communities. The awards are part of the Residential Retrofit Program, an initiative from MBI that works with housing operators and internet service providers (ISPs) to upgrade broadband infrastructure in public and affordable housing properties. The projects will install modern cabling in each unit, increasing residents’ access to high-quality, reliable and affordable broadband service. MBI launched the Retrofit program in February of 2024. The funding comes from the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). 

In my first public remarks on the space economy after becoming Chairwoman, I laid out three priorities for the FCC’s space agenda.

• One, we need new rules for the New Space Age.  The basic idea is that we cannot keep doing things the old way and expect to lead in the new.
• Two, we need to promote space innovation. Wherever possible, we want to encourage experimentation to unlock new technologies and applications.  This how we support U.S. leadership in the New Space Age, which is essential for our national and economic security.
• Three, we need space sustainability. Long-term growth for the space economy requires being responsible stewards of the skies.

In the three years since I delivered those remarks, we have made real progress on all three fronts. When it comes to new rules for the new Space Age, our boldest move has been to create the first-ever Space Bureau at the FCC.  It sends the signal that promoting investment and innovation in the space economy is one of our top priorities.  It says we understand how vital space-based communications are for our future.  The FCC is also the first telecommunications regulator in the world to create a Space Bureau, so we are also telling our international partners about the need to prioritize and collaborate on these issues.

Middleware, third-party software intermediaries between users and platforms, offers a promising solution to counter the concentrated power of social media platforms. The term has referred to a variety of technologies and systems over the years, including third-party provider tools that platforms themselves use internally. In this paper, we focus on “middleware” in the form of open, third-party products and services that are composable—meaning, with multiple providers available to be mixed and matched for specific use cases—and which offer user agency over the selection process and overall experience.

On December 16, Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote to President-Elect Donald Trump to express concerns about the roles played by Elon Musk in the Trump transition, and the conflicts of interest presented by a frequent federal contractor serving as "unofficial co-president." She wrote, "As a key adviser to you and a high-profile policymaker in his role as co-chair of the DOGE Committee, Mr. Musk appears to be playing an extraordinarily influential role in the transition, and it appears that he is poised to continue doing so after you assume office on January 20, 2025. He should be held to the ethics standards that you have established for your transition team and should provide clarity about his role and his activities in order to reassure the American public that he is working solely on their behalf and not using his role in the transition as an opportunity to fatten his own wallet."

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wants the FCC to crack down on news broadcasters that he perceives as being unfair to Trump or Republicans in general. Carr's stated goals would appear to mark a major shift in the FCC's approach to broadcasters. Carr's predecessors, including outgoing Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Pai, who served in the first Trump administration, both rejected Trump's calls to punish news networks for alleged bias. Carr has instead embraced Trump's view that broadcasters should be punished for supposed anti-conservative bias. Carr has threatened to revoke licenses by wielding the FCC's authority to ensure that broadcast stations using public airwaves operate in the public interest, despite previous chairs saying the First Amendment prevents the FCC from revoking licenses based on content.

Donald Trump is undergoing quite the fêting ahead of his second term—and it’s a whole lot cozier than his descent into Washington eight years ago. Tech titans are pouring millions of dollars into his inauguration and parading through West Palm Beach for meetings with the president-elect. Foreign leaders are seeking to curry his favor through phone calls and photo-ops. Liberal newscasters are rushing to Mar-a-Lago to mend fences with the man who painted them as “enemies of the people.” Meanwhile, Trump just hit his highest net favorability rating since April 2017 in a new Morning Consult survey. The fulsome embrace of Trump in recent weeks is a scene that would’ve seemed unimaginable four years ago. But it’s been clear for some time that the past isn’t a prologue for Trump’s second coming—a difference in approach across the political spectrum driven by his popular-vote win and battleground-state sweep. And it’s one that’s already playing out on Capitol Hill, as Republican lawmakers rush to nail down a strategy for passing Trump’s sweeping policy agenda and ramming through his Cabinet picks.

House Commerce Committee Chairman-Elect Brett Guthrie (R-KY) announced that two long-time aides will lead the Energy & Commerce Committee as Staff Director and Deputy Staff Director. Megan Jackson will serve as Staff Director of the Energy & Commerce Committee. Sophie Trainor Khanahmadi will serve as Deputy Staff Director of the Energy & Commerce Committee. Megan is a Kentucky native and trusted advisor who worked for Guthrie on his first Congressional campaign in 2008. She then spent more than eight years as his Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director. Sophie, a Tennessee native, has served as Congressman Guthrie’s Chief of Staff for the past three years, after spending the previous four years as his Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director.