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NSR Policy: Week One of Trump 2; What to Expect for BEAD, Spectrum, Immigration and Other Topics

We began the year with a note previewing what we believe will be the most consequential year in telecom and media policy since the mid-1990’s. That year starts in earnest next week with Trump formally becoming President. In this note we quickly summarize what we think will happen next week that will matter (and some things that will appear to matter but will not) to investors in the telecom and media sector. These include announcements related to the BEAD program (with the news likely to be negative for terrestrial wireline providers), spectrum (with the rhetoric likely to be positive for mobile wireless carriers but turning the rhetoric into reality in the near term to be challenging); immigration (with announcements translated to wireless growth being problematic for carriers); media (where despite a last minute effort by the outgoing Chair to affect the FCC’s ability to engage in—for lack of a better term—“content moderation,” the new Chair will continue his efforts to apply standards to media transactions that reflect his view that some broadcasters have used their broadcast licenses illegally; and USF, where T started its campaign to prevent states from adopting a New York style low-income broadband mandate by ending a fixed wireless service in New York (something unlikely to affect the company’s economics but something that the company can point to in its efforts to prevent other states from doing the same.