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Even before Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai formally unveiled his plan for a C-band spectrum auction to reassign bandwidth for 5G wireless services, legislative and public interest forces began voicing their opposition to or endorsements for the proposal. 

The prospect that "third parties [could] undercut...federal enforcement decisions" — such as the pending T-Mobile/Sprint merger — is one of the greatest concerns in the new antitrust environment, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim explained. He reminded people that the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Justice, and many states approved the merger in 2019. But then attorneys general from 10 states and the District of Columbia sued to prevent the alliance. A decision is still pending.

President Donald Trump's Feb 4 State of the Union speech gave only a few lines to tech and broadband issues, though he did talk more about the trade deals that tech companies have applauded.

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association said the Federal Communications Commission should not expand its ban of suspect tech identified as a threat to network security beyond participants in the FCC's Universal Service Fund broadband subsidy program. It said applying it to all networks regardless of whether or not the USF funds exceeds the FCC's authority and would duplicate efforts by other agencies. "There is no legal basis for the Commission to move from conditioning eligibility for a program it is statutorily authorized to administer on removal of certain equipment, to simply ban