At an afternoon press conference at the White House, flanked by tower linemen and ranchers, the president and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Ajit Pai announced the agency’s largest-ever auction of wireless spectrum—that is, the radio frequencies over which wireless communications signals travel—for the purpose of deploying fifth-generation wireless (5G) technology. As Mashable explains, wireless networks run on radio waves that FCC controls and opens up to private carriers through an auction process. In other words? What the announced last week will open up a huge new swath of those frequencies. China has already been pursuing similar domestic actions. Pai also announced a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, headed by FCC, that will award over $2 billion in subsidies every year for the next 10 years to build out that 5G network; the goal is to reach 4 million residences and businesses. Ars Technica reports the fund will subsidize companies that build out the infrastructure, like a fiber-optic backbone, needed to support wireless broadband. (Wireless needs wires.) The fund will succeed the Connect America Fund, a federal rural broadband initiative that primarily subsidized technologies like cable and DSL.