Hill, The

The future of the American mobile broadband industry has hinged on a small courtroom in lower Manhattan, where carriers and regulators are squaring off over a plan to reshape the wireless business as we know it. The last hurdle to T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint is a federal lawsuit, filed by ten state attorneys general in the Southern District of New York, accusing the merger of being anti-competitive. This is regulators’ last chance to stop the merger from going through, by proving that a merged T-Mobile will mean higher prices and worse service for wireless customers.

Though women and minorities constitute an increasingly large portion of our country’s populace, ownership of broadcast media remains dominated by white males. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has long ignored its congressional mandate to ensure a diversity of media viewpoints and continues to disregard orders from federal courts to increase women and minority participation in media ownership. The time has long passed for Congress to act.

Senators argued over their dueling proposals for a federal privacy law during a highly anticipated hearing Dec 4, marking the first time key senators have taken their disputes public after months of closed-doors negotiations.