Remarks by FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry at CANTO 2019

I look at the agenda for this conference [Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organizations (CANTO) 2019], and there are sessions on promoting 5G, artificial intelligence, and machine learning across the region.  There are discussions on creating safer communities where our citizens are protected from risks ranging from natural disasters to cyberattacks.  And there are workshops on how we can close the digital divide and build a digital future whose benefits extend to everyone, everywhere.  Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ait Pai and all of us at the FCC share these goals, and I’d like to spend my time today talking about the FCC’s efforts to advance them at home and across the region.

I want to talk for a minute about what we can do together to promote wireless deployment regionally—in particular, I want to talk about spectrum harmonization. The World Radiocommunication Conference in Egypt is only months away. As we approach this year’s WRC, the FCC has three guiding principles.  First, we need to create a flexible regulatory framework that allows for continued growth of a multi-trillion-dollar global ICT industry that will benefit all of our citizens. Second, we need to enable regional and global spectrum harmonization opportunities for all services, including broadcasting, Wi-Fi, mobile technologies, and satellites, to create international economies of scale, roaming, and interoperability, lowering prices for manufacturers and consumers alike. And third, we should ensure reasonable protections for incumbent users of the spectrum, so they can continue to operate and have enough certainty to invest in new technologies and expand coverage and deployment.