FCC Announces The Membership and First Meeting of the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced the appointment of 29 members to the FCC’s newly created Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC), which will meet for the first time on April 21, 2017. The BDAC’s inaugural meeting will focus on member introductions, directing initial assignments to committee members, and providing additional information about BDAC working groups. In addition, the group will begin initial discussions on strategies for accelerating the deployment of broadband.
Chairman Pai has named Elizabeth Pierce, CEO of Quintillion Subsea Operations and Quintillion Networks, to serve as Chair of the BDAC, and Kelleigh Cole, Director of the Utah Broadband Outreach Center in the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, to serve as Vice Chair. As the BDAC gets underway, it will have five working groups tackling projects critical to promote broadband deployment.
Model Code for Municipalities.—Douglas Dimitroff of the New York State Wireless Association will serve as Chair of this working group, and the Honorable Sam Liccardo, Mayor of San Jose, California, will serve as Vice Chair.
Model Code for States.—Kelly McGriff of Southern Light will serve as Chair of this working group, and the Honorable Karen Charles Peterson, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable, for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners will serve as Vice Chair.
Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure.—Ken Simon of Crown Castle will serve as Chair of this working group, and Brent Skorup of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University will serve as Vice Chair.
Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers.—Robert DeBroux of TDS Telecom will serve as Chair of this working group, and Kim Keenan of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council will serve as Vice Chair.
Streamlining Federal Siting.—Jonathan Adelstein of the Wireless Infrastructure Association will serve as Chair of this working group, and Valerie Fast Horse of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe will serve as Vice Chair.