Carr Raises Concerns on Commerce Department Broadband Plan
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized some policy calls the Commerce Department made in its notices of funding opportunity (NOFO) on grant programs funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, saying they seem to favor fiber. Wireless industry officials expressed…
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similar concerns (see 2205130054). Congress was “very clear about not having preferences for any one technology or one type of provider,” he said. The department’s rules “effectively negate that bipartisan decision by picking winners and losers in the extent that it puts a very strong thumb on the scale in favor of … fiber,” he said in a Thursday news conference. “Without the thumb on the scale, fiber would naturally prove its value and merit and win out in the lion’s share of cases,” he said. The NOFO takes decision-making away from the states, he said. Fiber also takes longer to build than wireless or satellite connections, he said. “That’s a mistake that will end up leaving people of the wrong side of the digital divide” longer than necessary, he said. “While the Infrastructure Act made clear that the law does not permit any rate regulation, the Commerce Department’s implementing rules head down that path anyways,” he said in a statement: The rules “also pursue a melange of extraneous political objectives that are unrelated to connecting Americans today. They include undue preferences for labor unions, government-run networks, and a Byzantine application process that will invite the imposition of additional conditions unrelated to quickly delivering high-speed service.” The rules also raise overbuilding concerns, he said.