FCC Can't Be Cautious on Helping US Stay Competitive, Commissioners Say
The FCC can't "rest on our laurels” because the rest of the world is ahead of the U.S., said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at Thursday's Practising Law Institute's Institute event. The agency must “ruffle feathers” if it's necessary to reallocate more mid-band spectrum, said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly.
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Rosenworcel criticized the FCC's national broadband maps, noting a recent study found millions more people without access to wired broadband than the agency's map. There's “an extraordinary delta between the two numbers,” Rosenworcel said. The FCC should pursue “better maps,” possibly through crowdsourcing data or using the agency's field offices, she said. “You cannot manage what you do not measure.”
Rural broadband deployment is a focus of the executive branch's spectrum policy, said Kelsey Guyselman, policy adviser to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Such programs should focus on targeting money most efficiently, she said. “There's obviously a lot of dollars going out the door already.”
O'Rielly praised the White House spectrum policy plan, but said the FCC isn't “stopping for it.” Guyselman said the plan is intended to look long term and keep spectrum planners from “ricocheting from crisis to crisis.”
Streamlining permitting deployment is important to increasing the spread of broadband, said Guyselman. Money spent on compliance and consultants means less to increase access, she said. The FCC should do more to work with municipalities, Rosenworcel said. “Three unelected officials in Washington” shouldn't be able to preempt local regulations, she said.
It's “continually surprising” how long it takes the FCC to act, O'Rielly said, especially considering how much smaller the agency is than Congress. “There are only four of us” now, he said. O'Rielly said it typically takes two years for one of his ideas to become a rule.
It's the FCC's job to remove impediments to broadband deployment, said Commissioner Brendan Carr. He said frequent trips outside Washington are important to learn what's “jamming up” attempts to deploy broadband. A priority for Carr in 2019 is making sure a workforce is in place to advance 5G deployment and perform tower work, perhaps by making sure there are programs to train future workers.