Federal Communications Commission
Commissioner O'Rielly Remarks Before the Silicon Flatirons' Tech Conference
The challenge for those of us charged with regulatory authority over certain technologies is to explain, educate, and, to some degree, manage expectations. Added to that is the obligation to enable the proper environment for innovation, and only take regulatory action when absolutely necessary, and only to the extent that doing so produces greater benefits relative to costs. In other words, our concern about any potential downside cannot be an automatic bar to further innovation, lest we expect to return to the days of dwelling in caves without fire.
FY 2021 FCC Budget Estimate
For FY 2021, the Federal Communications Commission is requesting the following budget and personnel amounts:
Starks Statement on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
- I have zero tolerance for continuing to spend precious universal service funds based on bad data. There is bipartisan—and nearly universal—agreement that our existing broadband deployment data contains fundamental flaws. And yet today’s Report and Order presses ahead with funding decisions based on mapping data that doesn’t reflect reality, plowing the same mission-critical error into a newer, much larger program. We must do better.
- We have not done enough to ensure that once broadband is available, families can actually afford it.
Rosenworcel Statement on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
While the spirit of this effort is right on—we have a broadband problem—the way we go about addressing it is not right. It will leave so many people, so many communities, and so many places behind. Let me explain why.
Carr Statement on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
I want to highlight three features of our decision today. First, we support the type of high-speed networks that are key to building 5G in communities across the country. So our decision marks another significant step forward for U.S. leadership in wireless. Second, when we launched this proceeding last summer, I proposed that we prioritize truly unserved communities over those that might already have fast Internet connections. Instead of treating every community with less than 25 Mbps the same, I suggested that we first focus on communities that have dial-up or nothing.
O'Rielly Statement on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
While there is a long road ahead, especially in terms of finalizing auction procedures, this Report and Order makes considerable progress in the effort to bring broadband to unserved Americans. And, to make clear at the outset, by limiting Phase I eligibility to those census blocks that have no broadband whatsoever and targeting those consumers truly deserving of FCC assistance, our action should not in any way trigger or exacerbate the rightful concerns raised over our broadband mapping procedures.
Pai Statement on Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund is building on the success of the Connect America Phase II auction. But we’re also making some significant changes to our CAF II approach—changes that will mean better networks covering more Americans. We’re more than doubling the minimum speeds that the auction will support from 10/1 Mbps in CAF II to 25/3 Mbps. We’re increasing the weights on bids to favor higher speeds and lower latency.
Report and Order Creating Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
The Federal Communications Commission adopts the framework for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. It builds on the successful model from 2018’s Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II auction, which allocated $1.488 billion to deploy networks serving more than 700,000 unserved rural homes and businesses across 45 states. The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund represents the FCC’s single biggest step to close the digital divide by providing up to $20.4 billion to connect millions more rural homes and small businesses to high-speed broadband networks.
The 3.5 GHz Auction Is Finally a Go!
At the February 2020 open meeting, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on procedures for the 3.5 GHz Priority Access License, or PAL, auction. Having taken the lead on the issue, I'll admit that it has been a long road to get here, but this important step represents one of the last actions the FCC needs to take to make these critical mid-band licenses available for 5G and other next-generation wireless services.