Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Arielle Roth

At the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, we are moving with urgency to modernize federal operations, improve efficiency, and get more spectrum into the marketplace. Our goal is to meet and hopefully exceed Congress’ timeline to find the spectrum that will power the next generation of wireless innovation. I look forward to delving into status of the bands we are studying and how we plan to meet our targets. I also want to highlight a new tool from NTIA that will track our progress in real time.

When the District of Columbia’s city government proposed its broadband expansion plan to the Trump administration, it sought nearly $4 million to connect 55 physical addresses—about $70,000 per location—in one of the most broadband-saturated cities in America. Today, we’re approving $0 in federal broadband funds for D.C. That reduction didn’t come from a new law or funding formula. It was thanks to old-fashioned on-the-ground oversight. This is what real oversight looks like.

In the 250 years since our founding, technology has repeatedly transformed speech—from the printing press to radio, from the telegraph to the telephone, and from the television to the global internet. Every major advancement in communications technology has shifted who holds power over speech. In our current age, that increasingly means that whoever controls communications technology controls the boundaries of free expression.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Arielle Roth delivered remarks at the 2025 National Telecommunications and Information Administration Spectrum Policy Symposium on September 10. "President Reagan once joked: 'The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.''  And let’s be honest—when it comes to spectrum policy, history has often proven him right.  From the decades-long delay of FM radio in the 1940s to foot-dragging on cellular licensing in the 1980s, rigid government gatekeeping too often sideline