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House Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) says wireless broadband providers need to do more to help families connect to broadband during the coronavirus pandemic. While he praised the efforts to date, including waiving overage fees and encouraged "all providers [to] temporarily make as much data available as possible, as quick as possible," he also called on them to provide more data for mobile hot spots during the Covid-19 crisis. "This is an unprecedented time, and wireless providers have already stepped up to the plate in a big way," he said. “But more can be done.

March 23, President Donald Trump signed into law the “Secure 5G and Beyond Act of 2020” (S 893). The Act requires the President to develop and implement a strategy for the adoption of secure wireless communications technology in the US and abroad.  The strategy will protect the American people from security threats to telecommunications networks and 5G technology.

Some 250 groups, from the American Civil Liberties Union to the Benton Insitute for Broadband & Society, have gotten together to tell the Federal Communications Commission it needs to take further actions to help low-income residents stay connected during the coronavirus crisis. 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has been working with Congress on ways to use government subsidy money for in-home devices by teachers, students and patients. The FCC is trying to subsidize distance learning and telemedicine tech during the coronavirus crisis, but is not authorized to do so.