Pai Counters Genachowski Arguments on Broadband and Jobs
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai blamed regulatory uncertainty for a sluggish economy and slow job growth, in remarks Friday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Pai, a Republican, presented a counter argument to Chairman Julius Genachowski, who has linked broadband expansion and job growth in numerous speeches over the last year (CD June 4 p1).
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"Our growth rate has been anemic, and in the last two months alone, over half-a-million Americans have exited the labor force. The information and communications technology sector has the potential to lead the way to a strong recovery,” Pai said (http://xrl.us/bnpsge). “Right now, according to the Labor Department, there are fewer Americans working in the ICT sector than there were in June 1989, a time before the advent of the Internet and the ubiquity of smartphones and other mobile devices. Over the past three-and-a-half years, the United States has lost 165,000 telecommunications jobs, over fifteen percent of the industry’s workforce.”
Pai said he has met with companies to ask why job growth hasn’t been more robust. “When I've asked what’s holding them back, why they aren’t investing the billions of dollars sitting on their balance sheets, I have heard a similar answer over and over again in one form or another: regulatory uncertainty,” he said.
Pai said he was disappointed the FCC recently suspended further grants of pricing flexibility petitions under its special access rules pending the receipt of more data (CD Special Bulletin Aug 22). “Marching back down the road of re-regulation sends precisely the wrong message to the private sector,” he said. “Companies are understandably worried that the Commission’s ultimate target will be fiber. Their concerns will only discourage infrastructure investment and delay the IP transition that will improve our global competitiveness.” Pai said studies estimate “every billion dollars the private sector spends on fiber deployment creates between 15,000 and 20,000 new jobs."
The FCC’s failure to put new spectrum in play for wireless broadband in the two and a half years since the release of the National Broadband Plan is also troubling, Pai told the Chamber. “The plan called for freeing up 300 MHz of additional spectrum for wireless broadband use by 2015, and 500 MHz by 2020,” Pai said. “This omission has serious consequences for the broader economy because of the link between spectrum policy and job creation. According to a recent study, a more rapid rollout of 4G wireless technology in the United States could yield $28 billion in additional capital investment and create up to 400,000 American jobs by 2016.” Pai also called for the FCC to establish a target date of June 30, 2014, for completing an incentive auction of broadcast spectrum.
Pai spoke to the Chamber’s Telecommunications & E-Commerce Committee, in a meeting that was closed to the public, but his office released a text of his remarks. A Genachowski spokesman did not respond to our request for comment.