FCC Commissioner Trusty’s Remarks at the International Institute of Communications

I recently returned from Baku, where I made my first international trip as a Federal Communications Commissioner to represent the US at the World Telecommunication Development Conference. For a new Commissioner, it was a remarkable way to see the global communications landscape up close. One thing became clear very quickly: even though the FCC is fundamentally a domestic agency, none of our challenges are purely domestic anymore. Spectrum allocation, satellite coordination, cybersecurity, infrastructure investment, and AI governance, these issues cross our borders with ease, even when our institutions do not. And if the 20 hours of travel to Azerbaijan taught me anything, it’s that global coordination may be hard, but crossing nine time zones may be harder. My conversations in Baku reinforced for me that the work we do at the FCC has implications far beyond our borders, and that staying engaged internationally is not optional, it is essential.