Politico

It’ll be years before most people have 5G phones and a super-fast network to connect them, but the future of mobile technology is shaping up right now. Behind the promises lie some big government decisions about what to prioritize, how to compete, and how fast to move. As citizens and consumers, whether they know it or not, people are being asked to weigh convenience against privacy, national competitiveness against national security, and speed against price.

The tech world is closely watching President Donald Trump’s two-day visit to India, which could have implications for digital trade, 5G and other policy areas. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is part of the US delegation in tow. “We will be discussing issues of mutual interest like 5G and bridging the digital divide,” Chairman Pai said in a video he shared via Twitter, “and we will aim to deepen the friendship between the world’s oldest democracy and its largest.”

In the race to dominate 5G, the Pentagon is the force causing the most concern. The most coveted piece of spectrum is the “mid-band,” a set of frequencies that can carry far more data than current cellphone signals. Since the 1960s, rights over much of the mid-band have been claimed by government agencies, most notably the Department of Defense, which says it needs to use mid-band waves for research and military communications.

Vice President Mike Pence (R-IN) and White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow have both prominently endorsed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai’s plan for auctioning off the 5G-friendly C-band airwaves, and this GOP support could dim congressional Republican interest in legislative deal-making. But prominent Democrats and Republicans who wanted to legislate say there’s still a chance.

The White House rolled out its fiscal year 2021 funding requests, including a proposed 71 percent bump in congressional spending on the Justice Department’s antitrust division — an increase that is another indicator that the agency is serious about its pending investigations into tech giants like Google and Facebook. (It would also allow the agency to hire 87 additional staffers.) In contrast, the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission aren’t requesting any big changes in their funding or staffing.