FCC Commissioner Carr, San Jose Mayor Spar Over 5G

The Federal Communications Commission's Brendan Carr is taking off the gloves in a fight with San Jose (CA) Mayor Sam Liccardo. “We must do better than Mayor Liccardo’s failed broadband policies,” Commissioner Carr wrote on Twitter  in response to a Liccardo op-ed. “Under his 3+ year leadership, San Jose approved zero small cells-ZERO-depriving residents of broadband options. It fell behind peer cities & the digital divide there only widened.” San Jose is among cities suing the FCC over Carr’s recent 5G wireless order, which would set limits on how long municipalities can take to review carriers’ infrastructure applications and how much they can charge. Mayor Liccardo, however, touts what he calls a “landmark” deal San Jose negotiated with carriers earlier this year to facilitate deployment of thousands of these 5G small cells. Carr’s ideas “represent a triumph of corporate self-interest over principle,” Liccardo wrote in his op-ed. On Twitter, the mayor fired back at Carr to say San Jose has “approved 86 cells already, w/4,000 more to come from last month’s agreements.” San Jose, added Mayor Liccardo, has “corrected your spokesperson’s falsehoods on this point before, & would have hoped you’d actually seek facts before parroting Big Telecom’s claims.”