Carr Making Decision on Next Major Infrastructure Order; Expects Quick Action
Commissioner Brendan Carr promised more FCC action is on the way on changes to wireless infrastructure rules, in an interview on C-SPAN’s The Communicators recorded Wednesday. Carr said he's “actively looking” at ways to speed up siting decisions and steps the FCC can take “to make sure that we’re all moving in the same direction in terms of promoting the deployment of this new infrastructure.” The episode is expected to be televised this weekend and put online Friday.
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Carr said the U.S. will beat China to be the first to widely deploy 5G but needs to get infrastructure rules right. Places like New York and San Francisco will have 5G deployment, regardless of what the FCC does, but that's not as clear in smaller areas, he said. Europe led the world on 2G, Japan on 3G and the U.S. on 4G, and can win on 5G as well, he said.
Carr declined to offer a timeline, but said “we’re moving pretty quickly” on the next big wireless infrastructure order. The FCC addressed initial siting issues in March, in an item approved 3-2 by commissioners (see 1803220027). Before that vote, Carr said he also was planning to address state and local impediments to small-cell and other wireless infrastructure (see 1803120049).
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Tuesday the agency has pre-emption authority (see 1805220034) “and I’m fully comfortable using it.” Asked about the limits of authority, Carr said “the commission has a substantial amount of authority in this case.” Congress made clear in amendments to the Communications Act that state and local laws “can’t have the effect of prohibiting … new services,” Carr said. “Our job is to take the guidance and the decisions that Congress has made and interpret them and make sure that they still make sense in light of the modern technological deployments.”
Carr said he expects local and state opposition if the agency plows ahead, and he will know more after an upcoming speech at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “We’re going to continue to work on these issues,” he said. He noted about 20 states have passed small-cell bills. "They understand the economic benefits that are going to come" from 5G, he said.
Carr sees net neutrality as less important than infrastructure and other issues before the regulator. “Contrary to some of the rhetoric that’s out there, consumers are not going to see the end of the internet,” he said. “We’re simply going back to the same regime that we had back in 2015 and for 20 years before that.” Consumers won’t notice, he said: “What they’re going to see, I think, is continued increased investment in broadband.”
Consumers aren’t focused on net neutrality, Carr said. “When you get out of D.C., what consumers tell me they really care about is getting better, faster, cheaper broadband,” he said. “They want more choices and that’s what we have heard everywhere we’ve gone.” Carr said he’s been at a lot of events and people raise the issue of net neutrality, but it’s not their prime concern. “There is a lot of common ground” on the net neutrality, Carr said. “I’m glad that millions of Americans are engaged on this issue and I think reasonable minds can disagree.”
Carr said he had a good relationship with departing Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and is working on one with Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel. “If we can find ways to continue to communicate, that’s important,” he said. “We’ve reached out to her office a lot. … Not any one office has a monopoly on wisdom.”