Rosenworcel Wants Efforts to Increase Role of Women in Communications, Tech Industries
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said women should hold more positions in telecom, media and tech. "I hate when people say it's a pipeline problem" because it "absolves" managers of responsibility, she said at an FCBA event Wednesday. She largely stuck to familiar themes in Q&A with FCBA President Julie Kearney of CTA. Rosenworcel backed a "spectrum calendar" and closing the "homework gap," suggested T-Mobile's proposed buy of Sprint has a difficult case to make, and decried the spread of unjustified claims of "fake news." She voiced hope for "distributed ledger" technology as a possible spectrum-sharing solution.
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Rosenworcel urged people to be leaders by sponsoring and mentoring women, pushing to increase their numbers and responsibilities. Responding to a question about her current role at the commission, she quipped, "Yeah, the only woman, the only Democrat -- I've noticed," though she said there's more agreement than disagreement among commissioners. Rosenworcel said she's often the only woman in the room when she visits industry, Wall Street or Capitol Hill, even though females make about 80 percent of household purchasing decisions.
The FCC needs a calendar to publicly prioritize its efforts to free up spectrum for commercial use, said Rosenworcel, listing a dozen or more bands from 3.5 GHz to above 90 GHz. The wireless industry also wants an aggressive FCC spectrum auction timetable beyond its 28 GHz auction scheduled for November, which is to be followed by a 24 GHz auction (see 1805100069).
Rosenworcel suggested distributive ledger technology could help with spectrum sharing. She said the FCC's previous 3.5 GHz decision set up a hierarchy of spectrum sharing, with government having the highest right, followed by licensees and unlicensed users. The difficulty was figuring out how to manage the uses through a database, she said. Distributed ledger technology, including blockchain, could assist in efficient spectrum management, she said. "It's a little out there," but it's time to "to start talking about it."
More must be done to increase residential broadband availability, including through unlicensed spectrum use, Rosenworcel said. She touted S-2958 by Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M. and Cory Gardner R-Colo., to require the FCC to expand E-rate reimbursement eligibility to include Wi-Fi on school buses.
Asked about T-Mobile/Sprint, Rosenworcel said she will look at their application (see 1806190062) to see if innovation will be increased and consumer rates will go down. "Moving from four to three" national wireless competitors "is a very hard case," she said.
Rosenworcel criticized the rise of the use of the term "fake news" (see 1806200053). She voiced concern how far the "moniker" has made it into daily life. "That's disturbing on a lot of levels," blurring the difference between truth and falsehood, complicating journalists' jobs, and making it harder to "get the facts," she said. "History will not be kind to people who do not speak up on behalf of the First Amendment."