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  2. April 2017

April 2017

O'Rielly Remarks at Broadband Deployment Advisory Cmte. Meeting

I hope this committee will take a holistic approach when reviewing possible technology solutions. The Commission has tried to maintain a principle near and dear to me of technology neutrality. Clearly, it is not economically feasible to drag fiber to every unserved location. Instead, it will take multiple technologies. While that may make your review that much more challenging, accepting and honoring this reality will best serve everyone in the long run.
A word of warning as you prepare to examine these issues and possible solutions.

At some point I am sure, someone will argue that one solution is just to throw money at the problem. In this case, the money they talk about comes from consumers in the form of higher service fees than are necessary. I will be extremely reluctant to consider any recommendation that proposes to increase costs on everyday Americans trying to survive in today’s economy.

International Efforts to Regulate the Internet Continue

Over the last several years, we’ve been lectured by many that the US position on Internet governance was no longer sustainable in the larger, global community. So-called experts claimed that the US’s minimal government involvement in Internet issues was no longer a prudent approach. These “experts” added that if the US just ceded on our sound principles a little bit, authoritarian governments of the world would end their continued effort to seek increased government regulation and control of the Internet. In other words, they sought an appeasement strategy.

We now have a recent case study of this exact approach, and it doesn’t seem to have worked. Instead, some foreign governments have renewed their disturbing calls for government involvement in the Internet via a number of forums. Accordingly, it’s time to reject appeasement, acknowledge the work ahead and redouble our efforts to quash these attempts using all appropriate means.

FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Holds First Meeting

All three commissioners were in attendance April 21 as the Federal Communications Commission hosted the first meeting of the newly constituted Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, created by FCC chairman Ajit Pai. The BDAC is comprised of various stakeholders, and tasked with coming up with strategies for closing the digital divide and advancing Chairman Pai's Digital Empowerment Agenda. The committee will be expected to come up with two "model codes," one for cities and the other for states, those codes being guidelines for how to streamline broadband deployment while balancing the interests of government with the demands for better, faster and cheaper broadband.

The meeting came a day after the FCC took steps to streamline both wired and wireless broadband buildouts in terms of tower siting, pole attachments and access, and rights-of-way on federal land issues, as well as retiring legacy copper networks—and whether nets have to get FCC permission for the phase-outs—and promoting next-gen service like 5G. The committee will also consider whether the FCC should preempt state laws impeding broadband buildouts.

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