The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced the availability of nearly $1 billion to fund programs that ensure communities have access to devices and skills needed to fully participate in the digital world, regardless of their background or circumstances. This is the first funding opportunity from the Digital Equity Act’s $1.25 billion Competitive Grant Program and is part of the “Internet for All” initiative, a key component of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. Under the Notice of Funding Opportunity, a variety of organizations can apply on a competitive basis for funding. NTIA encourages proposals that demonstrate a broad partnership of entities with the ability to administer significant resources and address wide-ranging populations. Applications are due by September 23. U.S. territory applications are due by October 22.  NTIA expects to begin making awards under this NOFO by Winter of 2024. NTIA plans to issue awards made under the Competitive Grant Program on a rolling basis.

Osage senior citizens no longer have to pay for internet access, which means they can more easily enjoy online language classes, telehealth appointments and digital tribal news from the comfort of their own homes. To qualify for the new program through Osage Broadband, participants must be enrolled Osage members and have an active account. They must also live within the tribe’s reservation and be at least 55 years old. The service is for internet that is 100 megabits per second, which is classified as a fairly fast speed and is a benchmark set by the Federal Communications Commission. They can also upgrade to faster speeds; however, those other packages come with a cost because they exceed the monthly subsidy of $49.99 per household. 

US senators wrote to Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Jessica Rosenworcel, Chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging them to closely scrutinize T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of UScellular. Since T-Mobile acquired Sprint in 2020, just three carriers have dominated the national mobile wireless service market. If approved, T-Mobile’s proposed $4.4 billion acquisition of UScellular would further deplete competition in the industry, giving T-Mobile access to four million new customers. Already, T-Mobile’s 2020 merger with Sprint has had harmful impacts – decreasing market competition, increasing prices for consumers, and harming employees. A class action suit filed in June 2022 charged that decreased competition resulting from the T-Mobile/Sprint merger caused cell phone costs for AT&T and Verizon customers to go up by billions of dollars. U.S. wireless customers have long paid some of the highest prices in the world, and this has only worsened since the merger. In addition to hurting consumers, the T-Mobile/Sprint merger has hit employees particularly hard. The companies have conducted numerous rounds of layoffs, including firing 5,000 employees in the fall of 2023, just two weeks before announcing extensive stock buybacks for shareholders. Antitrust law prohibits any merger that may substantially lessen competition, and the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission’s finalized Merger Guidelines make clear that a merger between competitors that further consolidates a highly concentrated market may impermissibly substantially lessen competition. Given the existing concentration in the wireless market, T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of UScellular would exacerbate current high concentration levels in presumptive violation of antitrust laws.

T Mobile said it entered into a definitive agreement to establish a joint venture (JV) with the investment firm KKR to acquire Metronet as the company aims to increase its fiber solution offer to U.S. consumers. The wireless broadband provider expects to invest around $4.9 billion to acquire a 50% equity stake in the joint venture and 100% of Metronet’s residential fiber retail operations and customers. The JV will also acquire Oak Hill Capital’s existing stake. Oak Hill Capital will make a reinvestment invest to retain a minority position, and its founder John Cinelli will also retain a minority position once the deal closes. Following the transaction’s close, Metronet will become a wholesale services provider for its retail customers, and its residential fiber retail operations and customers will be fully switched to T-Mobile.

The Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General undertook this evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the Department’s information-sharing system related to foreign malign influence directed at U.S. elections, evaluate the Department’s oversight and management of its response, and identify any gaps or duplication among the Department’s efforts in this area.  We focused on the Department’s information sharing with social media companies to evaluate the aspect of the Department’s information-sharing system that the FITF developed following foreign malign influence directed at the 2016 U.S. presidential election. We found that the FBI has developed an ”intelligence sharing model,” involving other members of the U.S. Intelligence Community and social media companies, but that neither DOJ nor the FBI had specific policy or guidance applicable to information sharing with social media companies.  We also found that the DOJ components tasked with countering foreign malign influence directed at U.S. elections effectively share information with each other.  In this report, we make two recommendations to ensure that DOJ takes a public and strategic approach to sharing information with social media companies in a manner that protects First Amendment rights to combat foreign malign influence directed at U.S. elections, thus strengthening public trust in the Department. 

Democratic frontrunner Kamala Harris is a long-time friend to the tech industry. For those in Silicon Valley, some of whom have vocally supported former President Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, Harris' California bona fides may make them think twice. Though Harris would continue President Biden's tech policy agenda, she'd likely be more hesitant to break up Big Tech and strip platforms of their liability shield. As San Francisco's top prosecutor, California's attorney general and the state's U.S. senator, Harris has had a long history with tech. While she is likely to carry out many tech policy initiatives Biden already started, we expect a friendlier tone toward companies, especially as she is likely to keep focus on reproductive rights, immigration and democracy.