Bloomberg

The largest US telephone companies in 2018 asked regulators to kill limits on the rates smaller carriers can be charged for connecting to the giants’ networks. Now the small carriers are claiming they have successfully defended the regulations as the Federal Communications Commission nears conclusion of a proceeding it has acted on in parts.

About $20 billion worth of wireless airwaves are sitting dormant, public goods whose rights were acquired by Dish, in government auctions over the past decade. Put to use, they could create more competition and supply millions more high-speed connections. To finally unleash those airwaves, the government is being asked to place more trust than ever in Dish and its owner, billionaire Charlie Ergen. Dish is on track to get even more airwaves and other assets in 2019, this time as part of a side deal to T-Mobile’s purchase of Sprint.

President Donald Trump’s decision to allow US companies to continue selling to Huawei followed an extensive lobbying campaign by the US semiconductor industry that argued the ban could hurt America’s economic and national security. In multiple high-level meetings and a letter to the Commerce Department, the companies argued for targeted action against Huawei instead of the blanket ban the Trump administration imposed in May.