Remarks of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai at the U.S. -- India Business Council

Our top priority so long as I serve as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is to close what I’ve called the digital divide—the gap between those with access to next-generation technologies and those without. We will work bring the benefits of the digital age to all Americans, no matter who they are or where they live.

How do we do that? We believe the most powerful tool for unleashing investment and innovation is a competitive free market—and are thus focused on rules that promote it. That’s why—consistent with decades of bipartisan tradition—we are pursuing a light-touch regulatory approach. This approach suggests that the Internet should be free from heavy-handed government regulation. It seeks to eliminate unnecessary barriers to infrastructure investment that could stifle broadband deployment. It aims to minimize regulatory uncertainty, which can deter long-term investment decisions. It favors facilities-based competition—that is, creating an incentive to build one’s own network instead of relying on another’s (which depresses the deployment incentives of each). It encourages competition among companies using any technology and from any sector—cable, telco, fixed wireless, mobile, and satellite. It embraces regulatory humility, knowing that this marketplace is dynamic and that preemptive regulation may have serious unintended consequences. And it places demands on the FCC itself—to be responsive to the public and to act as quickly as the industry it regulates. This regulatory approach, not the command-and-control rules of the 20th century, is most likely to promote digital infrastructure and opportunity.