At the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai said that Congress that needed to do something soon or “America’s 5G future will be delayed.” Part of the new $1.3 billion US Federal budget passed last month is something called the Ray Baum Act (Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act), which is supposed to make it easier to hold the frequency spectrum auction. They just love it when they can make an acronym don't they?
The auction basically sells wireless spectrum to Internet and mobile phone providers so that they, in turn, can provide wireless Internet connection to people throughout the United States.
One rule that goes along with the funding bill is that 90% of the households that get Internet connection from the program must currently either not have Internet or must have Internet below 10 Mbps.
The budget also designates up to 600 million dollars for the US Department of Agriculture to use for grants and loans to build out rural broadband.
