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The House Commerce Committee dove into the omnibus Lifting Infrastructure for Tomorrow's (LIFT) America Act, which includes $40 billion for broadband buildouts. Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR) said rebuilding infrastructure was a bipartisan priority, as was the agreement on better mapping to prevent "rampant overbuilding." Witness Mignon Clyburn, principal, MLC Strategies, LLC, and former commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, said the FCC should not be using current, bad, broadband coverage maps to determine who needs broadband.

There is simply no business case for investment in many rural areas without more effective public-private partnerships. That is why recent efforts in Washington to target funding and bridge broadband gaps in rural America are so important.  Rather than creating new programs out of whole cloth, we encourage Congress to look to existing federal programs with proven track records, like the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund, as it considers how to distribute additional direct funding resources.

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly tweeted:

While I generally withhold all comments regarding pending or prospective mergers, I find it necessary to clarify, at this time, that I am inclined to support T-Mobile/Sprint proposed merger, even if not convinced of the need for all the newly announced conditions being proposed.

The American Public Power Association, American Water Works Association, Edison Electric Institute, National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, and the Utilities Technology Council -- which together represent almost all of the nation's utilities, water, and wastewater facilities -- wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, warning him about the FCC moving too quickly to open up 6 GHz midband spectrum currently used by those utilities. The utilities say they need the spectrum for their mission-critical communications and that the FCC's proposal to open it up for unl

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he wished US allies could view a copy of May 14's hearing on 5G cybersecurity to see the uncommon bipartisan agreement that Chinese technology is a threat to the safety and security of the Internet of everything next-gen wireless broadband will drive.