FCC Chairman Pai: ‘Level playing field for old regulations and new tech a challenge’

A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. 

When asked, "Is there a need for expanding the ambit of a telecom regulator, which traditionally had oversight on networks, to include the evolving tech?" Chairman Paid said, "From the US perspective, it is increasingly apparent that convergence has made a lot of our regulatory structure antiquated....[O]ne of the challenges is to figure out how we find a level-playing field that promotes investment and innovations for all these firms without disadvantaging any one of them. The second issue is that these are very dynamic industries and one can foresee in coming decades – things like artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, quantum computing will have significant impact on how communications networks operate. We don’t have jurisdiction over these firms but that’s one of the thing we are trying to learn about. What are the emerging technologies that will have an effect on this space and how should our thinking about regulation evolve. No time ever has been more challenging than the 21st century."