FCC Chairman Ajit Pai

The centerpiece of my 2018 remarks was the Federal Communications Commission Commission’s new 5G FAST plan. And when I say new, it was really new—as in, five days old. I had announced the plan at a White House Summit the previous Friday. Two years on, as we approach the end of my fourth year as FCC Chairman, we can take stock of how we’ve done when it comes to executing that plan. 

On Sept 17, 2020, 36 Democratic and 2 Independent Senators wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai to demand that the FCC take immediate action to help children who lack internet access at home and are unable to participate in online learning. Specifically, they called on Chairman Pai to utilize the E-Rate program to close this "homework gap" without further delay.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the October Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, October 27, 2020:

Thank you to the International Institute of Communications and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for inviting me to speak with you. We’ve been asked to talk today about consumer protection in a market economy. When we think about how best to promote the public interest, regulators should avoid the trap of viewing consumer welfare and the private sector as being inherently at odds with one another. After all, it is good for consumers when the private sector invests, innovates, and competes.

I can say for sure that the agenda for the Commission’s October meeting will be filled with treats for consumers and innovators. 

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai appointed Glenn Woroch the FCC's Chief Economist. Dr. Woroch is Adjunct Professor Emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley, where he has spent nearly three decades in key roles, including serving as Executive Director of the Center for Research on Telecommunications Policy at the Haas Business School from 1995 until 2013.

We’ve gathered to discuss 5G security, of course, but I think it’s important to say up front that we can’t let these challenges hold back our efforts to unlock the possibilities of 5G itself. Over the past few years, the Federal Communications Commission has aggressively executed what we call our 5G FAST plan. This strategy for promoting 5G innovation and investment features three key parts: freeing up commercial spectrum, promoting the installation of wireless infrastructure, and encouraging fiber deployment.

From the outset of the pandemic, it was clear that we needed to do everything we could to connect patients with their health care providers. So back in March, the Federal Communications Commission immediately made an additional $42 million available through our Rural Health Care Program. We also waived socalled “gift rules” so that participants in the Rural Health Care Program could solicit and accept better services or additional equipment for telemedicine from their broadband providers. And thanks to Congress, we were able to do much, much more.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai implored governors around the country to take action to ensure incarcerated individuals can maintain vital community connections by addressing the too-often exorbitant rates and fees charged for inmates to make intrastate phone calls. Chairman Pai and Brandon Presley, President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), wrote to the leadership of the National Governors Association to highlight this issue and focus the attention of state leaders on their unique power and responsibility to address this problem.

Since my first day in this job, I’ve said that closing the digital divide was my top priority. And as this audience knows all too well, nowhere is that divide more pronounced than on Tribal lands. One new policy I’m particularly excited about is giving Tribes priority access to spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band.