FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel

Communications technologies power one-sixth of the nation’s economy—and every American needs access to these technologies to have a fair shot at 21st century success. That is why the budget request from the Administration before you today is so striking. It asks for less than the $339,000,000 the agency is set to spend in the current fiscal year and is almost $4,000,000 less than the budget level authorized by Congress.

I believe it is no longer enough to be first to 5G—the networks we deploy must also be secure. And to build 5G security effectively, we must build a market for more secure 5G equipment. That means making sure our companies can continue to innovate and encouraging other countries to invest in 5G security, too. This is a big task. As with all significant endeavors, the hard part is where to start. But I have some ideas—about where the Federal Communications Commission should begin.

According to the Federal Communications Commission’s last-published report, 24 million Americans lack access to high-speed internet service, with 19 million of them in rural areas. But last week the New York Times offered new numbers and they’re problematic, too. It found that 162 million people across the country do not use internet service at broadband speeds. There’s a big delta between 24 million and 162 million. 

[Oct 25's] announcement marks the start of the largest Federal Communications Commission reorganization in over a decade. As the new Office of Economics and Analytics gets off the ground I want to offer two ideas to ensure that its work is credible and consistent with the public interest. First, the work of this office must include peer review. It is unacceptable that so much of the recent economic work of this agency was not subject to any standard of peer review.  Second, the work of this office must be transparent.

Gov Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed a network neutrality bill into law.  A hefty thank you to the Golden State for your effort to get right what the Federal Communications Commission got wrong when it wiped out our open internet protections late in 2017. The FCC's misguided decision to roll back net neutrality gave broadband providers the green light to block websites, throttle services, and censor online content. That’s why the CA law is a welcome development—it’s good for consumers, good for businesses, and good for anyone who connects and creates online.

The biggest barrier for US leadership in 5G: the Trump Administration’s own misguided trade policies. Indeed, the administration’s trade war with China threatens to increase the costs of wireless infrastructure by hundreds of millions of dollars at a critical moment in the race to 5G.  It’s a classic case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.

I'm going to be the first Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission to talk about 6G wireless service. Getting from here to there won’t be simple. In fact, I think it will require Washington to reassess some policies it holds dear and considers tried and true. I want to talk about three things we should revisit for the spectrum policy of the future— valuation, auction, and distribution.

Today, in the spirit of learning from the past and building a brighter future, I want to focus on two specific bands where I believe we can do better—the 5.9 and 2.5 GHz bands. I want to walk you through their history and then—no shame—provide some ideas about what we can do right now to ensure these airwaves become the stuff of spectrum success.

Washington does not treat 911 operators with the respect they deserve. The Office of Management and Budget is responsible for a program known as the Standard Occupational Classification, which is an occupational data set that is widely used by state and federal authorities. It classifies 911 operators as “clerical workers.” This is outdated—and it needs to be fixed. 911 operators are first responders. When the unthinkable occurs, they are our first contact with public safety.

The Inspector General Report tells us what we knew all along: the FCC’s claim that it was the victim of a DDoS attack during the net neutrality proceeding is bogus. What happened instead is obvious—millions of Americans overwhelmed our online system because they wanted to tell us how important internet openness is to them and how distressed they were to see the FCC roll back their rights. It’s unfortunate that this agency’s energy and resources needed to be spent debunking this implausible claim.