Politico

Democrats once touted network neutrality as political dynamite, but now hardly any seem to realize their party’s presidential frontrunner has said nothing about it — now a key difference between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as they vie to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.

From an office in London's diamond district, Ben Scott has his eyes set on Big Tech.

A federal appeals court grappled March 5 with whether average consumers know the difference between the ads and the organic search results that appear on Google. Arguing before the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 1-800 Contacts — which is seeking to reverse a Federal Trade Commission decision that its trademark agreements violated antitrust law — contended that they don’t understand.

Reps. Billy Long (R-MO) and Susan Brooks (R-IN) are siding with the wireless industry and asking Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to reserve a portion of the 6 GHz airwaves for auctioning off spectrum for licensed use.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s tech task force is gearing up to take on 5G wireless, said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). The bipartisan mix of lawmakers will be “looking at some of these intricacies that affect spectrum and 5G deployment, security of the network and applications that are available to make life more convenient and accessible for consumers,” she said. Sen Blackburn also nudged Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to make a call about whether to allow satellite firm Ligado Networks to light up wireless service.

Sen. John Neely Kennedy has yet to go directly to President Donald Trump with his outrage over the Federal Communications Commission’s planned approach for auctioning the 5G-friendly C-band airwaves — but “I will,” he said. “There’s no big rush,” Sen Kennedy said. “The FCC is going to do what the FCC is going to do [Feb 28]. But what counts is what we do.

President Donald Trump says he wants America to win the race to the fast new wireless future. He took it seriously enough to sign a presidential memorandum setting a deadline of July 2019 for a new national strategy on allocating the airwaves. That deadline came and went with no strategy in sight. In September, a Commerce Department undersecretary promised that the strategy was still on the way, telling a gathering of government officials that it would be released in the fall. A Commerce official said that the department did indeed deliver a draft to the White House.

A Q&A with Robert Blair, senior advisor to the White House Chief of Staff. His new challenge: help further Trump’s global aims on 5G, including an ongoing campaign to prevent America’s allies from relying on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. “One of the messages that I want to bring to people is: Take a breath,” Blair says. “The Chinese are not winning this race.”