June 2025

Digital health applications, from tele-mental health services to remote patient monitoring to health portals, have the promise of improving people’s access to health care. But in order to ensure that patients can benefit from these advances in technology, they need robust, affordable internet connections, devices, and the skills to use these technologies safely. Our work at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is focused on ensuring that everyone can use and benefit from broadband.

The Trump Organization announced it is launching a new mobile phone business: Trump Mobile. It’s the latest new business the Trump Organization is getting into during President Trump’s second term in the White House, a dynamic that has raised various ethical concerns from his critics. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son, announced the new initiative along with his brother Eric Trump, on the 10th anniversary of their father’s first announcing he was running for president, from Trump Tower in New York City. Trump Jr.

Who would have expected that broadband spectrum would create an enormous logjam in Congress? Well, it has. But at long last Republicans have struck a deal to auction more government spectrum as part of the tax bill, which may be the closest thing there is to a free government lunch. The 2023 expiration of the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to sell government spectrum licenses has slowed plans to build out broadband networks and put existing airwaves to more productive use.