Insights: Tech / Media / Telecom

Tech / Media / Telecom

Rural Broadband (BEAD)

Last Friday, the Commerce Department/NTIA announced a new process for determining how the $42.5b in funding from the BEAD rural broadband program will be distributed. The new rubric for distributing funds eliminates the Biden administration’s emphasis on fiber, as well as various other requirements (e.g., labor, availability of a low-cost plan,...

Energy, Financials, Healthcare, Macro, Tech / Media / Telecom

Senate Republican negotiations on changes to the House-passed reconciliation bill are intensifying. It appears that changes under consideration in the Senate increase the deficit by ~$600-700b beyond the House-passed bill’s $2.4t deficit impact, though there is consideration of adding provisions to try to close that gap. House conservatives are...

Tech / Media / Telecom

Content Moderation

The comment period has closed for the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) inquiry into “Technology Platform Censorship.”

Tech / Media / Telecom

Antitrust (Google)

The U.S. District Court for D.C. held closing arguments in the remedies phase of the DOJ’s search antitrust lawsuit against Google.

Tech / Media / Telecom

Broadband (BEAD)

Secretary Lutnick said in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday that he expects to “shortly” issue a new Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the $42b BEAD program (i.e., guidance on how funding can be used). This is consistent with mid-May comments from Sen. Capito (R-WV), Chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus, that new...

Energy, Financials, Healthcare, Macro, Tech / Media / Telecom

Senate Republicans have indicated that the committees responsible for various components of their emerging reconciliation legislation will be releasing draft text in the next couple of days. The Senate Finance Committee, which is responsible for taxes and entitlement programs (e.g., Medicaid, ACA) is likely to be last, with release of its text...