FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee Holds First Meeting

All three commissioners were in attendance April 21 as the Federal Communications Commission hosted the first meeting of the newly constituted Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee, created by FCC chairman Ajit Pai. The BDAC is comprised of various stakeholders, and tasked with coming up with strategies for closing the digital divide and advancing Chairman Pai's Digital Empowerment Agenda. The committee will be expected to come up with two "model codes," one for cities and the other for states, those codes being guidelines for how to streamline broadband deployment while balancing the interests of government with the demands for better, faster and cheaper broadband.

The meeting came a day after the FCC took steps to streamline both wired and wireless broadband buildouts in terms of tower siting, pole attachments and access, and rights-of-way on federal land issues, as well as retiring legacy copper networks—and whether nets have to get FCC permission for the phase-outs—and promoting next-gen service like 5G. The committee will also consider whether the FCC should preempt state laws impeding broadband buildouts.