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Oct. 5, 2025 02:22-02:53 - CSPAN
30:54
FCC Chair Brendan Carr Speaks at Tech Conference
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo Source
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brendan carr
12:07
Appearances
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dasha burns
politico 00:04

Speaker Time Text
AI and Space in Colorado 00:15:32
unidentified
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dasha burns ▲ ● ▼
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unidentified
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Up next, FCC Chair Brendan Carr speaks on telecommunications policy.
In this half-hour conversation, he discussed permitting reform, opening up access to spectrum for private companies, and the potential impact a government shutdown could have on the agency.
With your chairmanship, have you undone the PIE regime's Kansas City Chiefs approach as a Colorado?
Well, it's funny, you know, over the years, you know, Ajit was from Kansas, Commissioner Starks was from Kansas.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And so for me, it was really difficult being, you know, the number one Chiefs fan on the FCC, at least while they were still winning Super Bowls.
But I don't know, in the post-Taylor Swift era, I think I'm giving up on trolling Ajit and Commissioner Starks on the Chiefs.
unidentified
I'm back to my roots with the commander.
So they're doing okay.
They're doing okay this year.
But it's so good to see you.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Congratulations to you on taking over the helm here of this great organization.
You know, Corey and I go back a long time, at least 10 years ago this month was the very first time we spent at least significant amount of time together.
unidentified
When I was a staffer then to then Commissioner Ajit Pai, we did a visit out to Colorado and you were fantastic.
There was an op-ed that we worked on in the Daily Sentinel.
I'm not sure where at the Daily Sentinel, what city that?
Grand Junction, Colorado.
Grand Junction.
You got it.
Rural Western Slope.
So we did that and it was a fantastic visit.
And the senator has just had a phenomenal career in Congress, including on energy and commerce.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
In fact, again, if I've done anything wrong in this job at all, I think you get some of the blame for that because my confirmation hearing, senator was kind enough to introduce me for the confirmation hearing.
unidentified
And so, you know, it's been off to the races since then.
But you've been such a great leader in this space.
We've worked together on telehealth.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
We've worked together on robocalls, rural broadband, and really look forward to continuing that partnership with you in this new job.
unidentified
Well, Chairman, thank you very much for those kind words.
And I remember that 2017 hearing when I introduced you to the committee when you joined the commission.
And you could tell then, both through your observations, your answers, that better things, greater things were in store for you.
And it's exciting to see you as chairman now of the FCC.
And the time that we, I think, spent talking about rural issues in Colorado was near and dear to my heart.
As a rural Coloradan, growing up, cable television meant we had 12, I think 12 channels that Star Spangled Banner played around 11 o'clock at night, maybe 12 o'clock at night.
I told my kids that one day that the TV went off the air at midnight and they looked at me like I was crazy.
But a lot of changes, a lot of opportunities, and we did some really good things, I think, in our approach to policy then.
And as a result, that small town of mine has incredible options thanks to the work that the FCC has done, thanks to the work that we did in Congress, and look forward to continuing to do that.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
You know, when we met all the way back in 2015, I think you used to say that you had more bars in your town of 3,000 people than bars on your cell phone, was one of your lines.
unidentified
But hopefully, that's gotten less.
That's exactly right.
I think it was.
I think I may have said I have more bars on my cell phone than I do in my hometown.
Yeah, yeah.
I think it was the line we used.
But exciting to have you here and really appreciate it.
Earlier this year, you were in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I believe, and you were talking about your priorities for the Build America agenda.
And we have an audience full of dedicated individuals, industry leaders, engineers across the country that are all talking about how to increase opportunities, how to increase the power, extend the power, broadband networks around the country.
Could you briefly summarize your efforts with Build America, what it means, your agenda, and give us a little bit of an idea of how that will continue with your leadership?
Yeah, thanks so much.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
I mean, look, in this job in DC, one of the best parts of it is spending as little time inside the Beltway as possible.
I try to get out around the country as much as I can.
unidentified
And particularly this job at the FCC, I've ended up spending a lot of time in South Dakota, Mississippi, Texas, Alaska.
You kind of go down the dais of the Senate Commerce Committee.
You end up spending a lot of time in those particular states.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
But one of the things that, again, if you step back, one of the things I'm sort of struck by is actually on that very first visit that we did together back in 2015, the hot topic back then was, as it is, you know, Parole.
unidentified
By the way, we were both about six foot four, I think, in 2015.
Yeah, I had hair back then, too.
It was amazing.
Was heavy-handed Title II regulation of the Internet?
We're going through one of those surges of demands that we heavily regulate the Internet.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And ultimately, the greatest stress test of global telecom policy ended up being COVID-19.
When all those work from home orders came across and schools were shut down, people went home.
And it was a tremendous stress test for our nation's broadband networks.
unidentified
And cable providers and other internet providers really stepped up to the plate.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
They made some engineering changes to their networks.
And we took this surge in demand that hit the networks.
And in the U.S., our networks were fine.
In fact, speeds increased in many cases, whereas Europe and other nations that experimented and went down the path of heavy-handed regulation of the internet saw significant declines in speed.
unidentified
And so, you know, that's a great sign for the U.S. telecom policy.
Obviously, we're not at the mission accomplished phase.
And what we're running at the FCC is a Build America agenda.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And as you noted, I launched this agenda out in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
I was at a tower climbing company's warehouse, and that was actually the first place in this job that I put on a hard hat and a harness, violated the Dukakis rule of politics of never doing that, and climbed a tower.
And so it was fitting for me to get back to that same facility to launch this Build America agenda.
unidentified
And actually, the same tower crew that I was with that day, I've been all over the country with.
I've been up 2,000-foot broadcast towers with them.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And the key part of that agenda is we've got to get shovels turning dirt again across the nation.
unidentified
So the Build America agenda has a couple of key pillars.
One is we've got to restore U.S. leadership in wireless.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
The last couple of years in particular, we flatlined a bit in terms of making new spectrum available.
Our auction authority at the FCC to even move spectrum had lapsed.
Thankfully, President Trump and Congress came together and they restored our auction authority, and we're full steam ahead on that.
unidentified
We can talk more about that.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Another piece is unleashing more high-speed bills, and that really comes down to permitting reform.
It can still cost too much and take too long to build out internet infrastructure in this country.
And so, actually, tomorrow at the FCC, we're going to be voting on a series of permitting reform proposals, both on the wireless side to make wireless infrastructure easier to build out, but also on the wireline side.
Because if you remember, during the time when Pai was chair, I ran the FCC's infrastructure reform efforts on the small cell side in particular.
We saw a big surge in small cells, which were the building blocks of 5G.
But now we need to move some of those reforms over into other types of internet and telecom infrastructure.
National security is a big piece of our agenda as well.
unidentified
We're always looking to make sure that our networks are safe and secure.
We've taken a number of actions on that front.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And so our sort of list of actions goes on from there, including the space economy.
unidentified
We're really trying to boost the America's space economy.
We're seeing a lot of good results there already.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
We've already cut in half, frankly, the backlog that it existed for certain applications at the FCC.
So that's our main agenda that we're running.
unidentified
And again, we're going to put some more wins on the board as soon as tomorrow.
Well, yeah, as somebody who has walked the walk, you've climbed the climb and gone up these towers.
I have not had the opportunity to do that yet.
I look forward to it here at some point.
Lucky you cable plant isn't 2,000 feet up.
So it can at least get you up, you know.
A little bit, but I remember years ago going with Chuck Grassley, not going with him, but because of him, he had climbed a wind tower.
And I thought, if Chuck Grassley can do this, I can do this.
The only difference was by the time I got up on top of that turbine, I was on my hands and knees crawling, terrified to look down.
Well, I remember the first time I did that 2,000-foot climb, thankfully it was snowing that day.
This was actually in Rowena, South Dakota, outside of Sioux Falls, which I appreciated because my teeth were chattering.
I could blame it on the cold rather than the fear.
So it sort of covered up some of the emotion I was having at the time.
But your point, too, about just the build and the infrastructure, I think if you look at the cable industry itself, $2 trillion invested in the last 30 years.
That's an incredible number, $2 trillion of investment in the last 30 years.
But I remember the very first quarantine in 2020, March 17th for me.
Congress shuts down shortly thereafter that, didn't come back until early May.
The entire government policymaking operation, town meetings, interactions shifted in how we do business.
And it was incredible to see how that was handled and the systems in place to deal with the volume.
And I think that's an incredible commendation for the industry.
You talked about the space industry a little bit, and that brings me to the next point.
So issues relating to the revolution in technologies and applications.
And you've talked about visionary applications before.
And if you look at some of the DOCSIS 4 type of technology that has allowed us to move forward, the space economy in Colorado, where Cable Labs, of course, is located.
Just some recent numbers with the DOCSIS 4 out of Colorado Springs, the heart of the space economy, you can see incredible numbers, incredible speeds that have been achieved there in some of the recent showing.
And so if you go through the exhibits today, if you go out onto the show floor, you'll see some of that revolution that's occurring in the broadband networks.
Private investment continues to thrive.
And of course, ongoing efforts to build network services at scale, offering, you know, across their footprints, multi-gigabit speeds, reliability, advanced reliability, and security.
And so as you at the FCC consider developments for broader competition and that broader competition landscape for broadband services, what's your take on the health of the current broadband industry and the marketplace and some of those visionary applications that you've talked about?
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Look, we're in a very, very competitive time right now for the industry.
unidentified
In fact, one of the things that I usually sort of refer to at the FCC is the Gretzky test, right?
We've got to look where the puck is going, not where it's been.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And when you look at sort of the new converged market for connectivity, we've been talking about convergence for a decade at this point in time, but we're really, I think, seeing it as a practical matter for the first time ever.
You've got cable companies that are taking a higher percentage share of new mobile wireless subscribers than mobile wireless companies.
You've got mobile wireless companies that are taking big shares of the home broadband market through fixed wireless technologies.
And again, as you noted, with the space economy, this new generation of low Earth orbit satellites in particular, whether it's Starlink now or hopefully soon Kuiper, everybody is competing in such a unique environment.
And that's going to open up new opportunities for innovation.
unidentified
You mentioned space, but also AI, artificial intelligence.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
President Trump has been very clear that he wants the United States to lead the world when it comes to AI.
unidentified
We want to have the entire stack capable right here in America.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
In fact, One of the very first speeches that Vice President Vance gave at the beginning of the administration was in Europe.
unidentified
And he talked about how the United States was going to be the gold standard.
It was going to lead in AI, but the U.S. didn't necessarily need to go it alone.
And from our perspective at the FCC, we're much more sort of the pipes and tubes people.
But AI means a massive increase in data.
We've got this hockey stick curve of demand that just keeps getting steeper and steeper.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And so we want to make sure that as AI develops, that we have the networks that will make it successful here.
unidentified
Because in a lot of ways, it's sort of like the app economy.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
When America led the world with high-speed networks, both wired and wireless, as we did this transition from 3G to 4G, that allowed the app economy to develop in the U.S. rather than in Europe and other places.
unidentified
There's lots of reasons why it developed here.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
But it was necessary to have that network so the innovators could do that.
unidentified
And we see the same thing with AI.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
So whether it's undersea cables, where we're doing a lot of work to make sure that our continent stays fully connected, whether it's all this investment going into the wired networks, the wireless networks, we want to make sure that the U.S. leads the world in AI because, frankly, the stakes are very high.
unidentified
There's a fork in the road right now in the development of AI technologies.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
On the one hand, you've got China, which very clearly wants to dominate in AI, but their AI is deeply embedded with ideological bias.
unidentified
For instance, if you ask DeepSeek what happened at Taneman Square, they would say nothing.
It was a fine day.
If you ask them how the Uyghurs are doing, they say they're doing wonderful.
getting a nice education in a camp-like setting.
I mean, just totally...
Playing volleyball, yeah.
Yeah, total misperception of reality.
So we want AI to develop free from that type of bias.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
That means the U.S. has to lead the way, and that means for us, our networks have to continue to be the best, the most high-performance out there.
unidentified
Where do you think AI takes the industry?
What do you see?
Where do you predict five years, ten years that AI future has taken us?
I think it's going to be really remarkable.
It's hard to predict exactly sitting here.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And our role at the FCC, in addition to sort of the permitting reform and making sure that the networks are fast, we're also taking a look right now at whether there's a role we can play with respect to heavy-handed state regulation of AI.
We do have some authorities, whether it's through Section 253 or Section 332 of the Communications Act that lets us preempt various state or local regulations that effectively prohibit the provision of telecom services.
So there may be a portion of AI services that may be too heavily regulated at the state and local level that the FCC may be able to play a role in helping to streamline.
unidentified
And so we're taking a look there.
Very good, very good.
You mentioned, too, some of the network convergence conversations taking place.
And when you, again, go out to the exhibit and you see the show space and the exhibits, you see that on the floor.
You talk about new capabilities that have been created for cable operators, providers, and how innovative approaches to low power spectrum sharing can be used to unlock spectrum that can support new commercial services.
And I think you've talked about this in the past.
But would you comment on the importance of policies to promote those commercial spectrum access, low power, shared, exclusive, unlicensed, non-exclusive, unlicensed power opportunities, spectrum opportunities, to secure the full benefit of the wireline community, really, and the connectivity investments that we have seen?
Working on Different Terms 00:14:50
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, I mean, if you step back, the U.S. has always been able to lead the world in mobile wireless connectivity.
Because we've been ahead of the curve, particularly with respect to other countries, when it comes to freeing up spectrum.
Again, you look back during the last Trump administration, we put a tremendous amount of W's on the board from the spectrum perspective.
Six gigahertz, obviously, was one where Chairman Pai and others sort of helped open up that band to more expansive use of Wi-Fi.
But there was obviously a lot of other bands that we worked on, including C-Band, which we're heading down the path of again of C-Band 2.0.
But we've got to make sure that we have the right spectrum for the right use case.
unidentified
And with our auction authority back, we're doing that.
The big thing for us right now inside the building is C-BAN.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
That's where we've got a very strong team that's working away.
We've got a summer of 2027 deadline for completing an auction of that, which is actually a very compressed timeline when you look at what's necessary to get done.
unidentified
But we're working well together.
Working well with the Department of Transportation, with FAA, with the White House, NEC.
So we've got the right sort of stakeholders rowing in the right direction there.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And so it's a challenge, but I'm confident that we're going to nail the landing here on that one.
unidentified
But the C-Band work in particular is our primary focus on the spectrum side right now.
You had talked to me a little bit, I think, in one of the hearings that we had back in 2017 or 2018.
You talked about just the nature of technology.
And I think the quote you said that we tend to underestimate the pace and nature of technological change.
Could you talk about that in the context of what we're dealing with here today?
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, ultimately, I think the lesson for the FCC is not to pick winners and losers.
unidentified
The technology changes so fast.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
There's only so much we can do at the AG to keep up, but we have to sort of keep our eye towards where it's going.
And one of the things that we're doing as well is not only moving spectrum auctions, whether it's C-Band, but we're also looking at the private sector and looking at where spectrum potentially has been underutilized over the years and encouraging folks to move spectrum to higher and better use.
You've seen that recently with DISH, with ECOSTAR, where they've decided to move, I think, 50 megahertz to ATT.
unidentified
We're going to look at that transaction.
They've also proposed to free up another 50 megahertz for Starlink, potentially for direct-to-sell technology.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And again, if we reach the decision that that's in the public interest, that could have really interesting benefits for the country to lead the way on that next generation of direct-to-sell.
So we want all of these different technologies ultimately to be able to thrive and have access to the spectrum necessary to do that.
unidentified
You talked, and I want to go back to one of the other questions and some of the answers you gave in terms of the issues dealing with state, state activity, the permitting issues, poll attachment issues.
How can we help?
How can the industry help you with those decisions and that process?
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, there's so many cities and towns around the country that are obviously doing the right thing.
unidentified
They want broadband, they want more competition, they want more choice.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
But we still see some parts of the country where it's just too difficult.
There are cities that are charging too many fees to be able to just set up a process for applying for individual permits.
What we've done over the years, and this is what we're going to do again, is take a look at shot clocks on the one hand and reasonable limits on fees on the other hand.
So with the shot clocks, what we're going to be doing is making sure that you get a decision up or down within a reasonable period of time.
unidentified
That's the only way that you can plan these billion-dollar investments.
And on fees, it's the same thing.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
You have to have some sort of predictability about what the cost is going to be to build these networks out from a government permitting perspective.
So those are the two main things that we've looked at before, and those are the same concepts that we've built into these votes that we're going to take tomorrow.
unidentified
You have taken a lot of actions in the realm of cybersecurity, dealt with a number of issues, risks from foreign actors.
We talk about cybersecurity every single moment that we get a chance to.
You've got a number of bad actors that are looking to bring down our communication systems, networks, and use their attacks to promote their criminal activities.
How would you assess the threats that we face right now?
What actions should we be focusing on?
And how would you like to see industry improve?
Obviously, we've done an incredible amount of work to improve, but what do you see?
Look, every single day, the CCP and other bad actors are out there.
They are prodding our networks.
They're looking for holes.
They're looking for opportunities.
One of the things that we did in moving to our new building at the FCC is we have a much larger SCIF area, secure facility.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And I've got a single advisor to me that is a national security expert.
unidentified
I think that's the first sort of direct report in the chairman's office that has that.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And all of that is a sign of the increased threats that are taking place right now from a cybersecurity perspective.
We've also stood up a council on national security inside the FCC so we can bring together experts from across the agency.
It used to be that you could deal with these types of issues in the Public Safety Bureau, but now we really got to have sort of experts and eyes across every bureau, wireless, wireline.
unidentified
And so that's something that we're doing.
As a general matter on these national security issues, we're taking a lot of steps.
So as you know, there's no piece of electronics that's allowed to come into the U.S. to be used or sold or marketed unless it's approved for use through a lab recognized by the FCC.
And historically, that lab process was pretty basic.
What power level is something on?
What spectrum is it operating on?
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
But increasingly, we're asking these labs to engage in national security reviews.
And up to recently, we never had any check in place to make sure that the labs themselves are trustworthy actors.
unidentified
They can be trusted to make those decisions.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
After all, we don't want a Huawei spy gearbox coming to the country with sort of a white label of something else on it.
So we've now adopted rules for the first time that let the FCC kick out of our system, not to recognize labs that are beholden to the government of China.
In fact, we've taken a number of actions over the last couple of weeks to, for the first time, kick labs out of the system.
And so whether it's sort of physical threat, cybersecurity threats, and in fact, you know, the industry continues to step up and coordinate with us to make sure that we have a high level of communication.
Ultimately, this is not necessarily one cybersecurity where I think very specific, very detailed, comprehensive federal regulations is necessarily best.
What we want to be able to do is have high information flow between the government, between the technologists in these companies.
We want them to be responsive to us when we see something.
unidentified
I think that's the best way to deal with this in a nimble way.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And I think in some respects, last year, two years ago, I thought the FCC went down a path that was different than that, because we want collaboration.
unidentified
When there's a cybersecurity incident, we don't necessarily want you sort of lawyering up and shutting down.
We want you opening up to us, talking to us about it, and let's just find the right solution.
I think that cybersecurity conversation and the expertise involved in that leads to another question when you're talking about engineers here and the technicians here and sort of the highly skilled workforce that's required from the folks that are going out onto the ground and putting the pole attachments in place, you name it.
No conversation with Chairman Carr would be complete unless we talked a little bit about workforce and what that means.
What do you see in terms of those challenges?
How can we help?
How can we be a part of that solution?
What can the FCC, what can the government be working with us together on that workforce challenge?
Yeah, look, I mean, again, one of the pieces of Build America is making sure we have that skilled workforce in place.
Over the years, we've run a couple of different plays.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
One, we've stood up around the country various community college programs so that someone can go from a couple weeks of in-class training plus a couple weeks of actual physical training and learn the skills necessary to enter into this industry.
The Department of Labor right now is doing a lot of work on this front and frankly, industry doing their own in-house efforts is really important.
But we have to have that next generation of skilled workforce to complete these internet infrastructure builds.
And on that front, we're really pleased to see the wage growth that's taking place for a lot of the blue-collar jobs that are necessary to build out this internet infrastructure.
unidentified
In fact, at the FCC itself, we've prioritized that.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
There's been a number of transactions that have come through the FCC where the providers have taken steps to take care of their workforce.
unidentified
And I think that's going to be ultimately the long-term key here.
Great.
So we're sitting on this stage together having this conversation September 29th.
The clock is ticking.
We've talked about shot clocks on permitting, but there's another shot clock in town that is looming very large.
You've got a lot of discussions.
I think there's a White House meeting today between President Trump and Leader Schumer and Leader Jeffries.
It's possible that we see a lapse in government funding in just over 24 hours here.
What does that mean for the FCC?
How do you address that?
What can people expect?
Well, for better or worse, agencies in D.C. have gotten a little bit used to the shutdown sort of issue at this point.
We have been hard at work the last couple of weeks preparing for a possible government shutdown.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Our chief of staff has this as a major work stream.
unidentified
The good news is, again, we've got a lot of sort of stuff that's on the shelf for how this works.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
We're in close coordination with other agencies, with other components of the federal government.
And we're crunching the numbers right now to see how much funding does the FCC have, when exactly do we have to shut down if there's a lapse?
unidentified
I mean, some of the exact dates in terms of when we run out of funding, we're still working through the final details of that.
Hopefully we avoid it, but we do have sort of an off-the-shelf playbook at this time because we've been through it.
I mean, look, I've been at the FCC itself since 2012.
I've been in a lot of different jobs there.
I've lived through a couple different shutdowns.
Hopefully we don't get there, but we do have a game plan in place that we'll execute on.
And do you think, I mean, if you look at your service, obviously in 2017, beginning, 2017, you had the President Trump's first term, you have this first year of the president's second term.
I mean, as you look at whether it's a shutdown approach, as you look at things, I mean, how do you compare the two different terms?
What's the difference?
What are the key sort of distinguishing factors?
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Well, look, I think we're in a really unique time right now with President Trump and the Trump administration because this isn't sort of your typical second term, right?
unidentified
I mean, in a lot of ways, this is sort of a second first term.
And it's an administration that across the board has a lot of energy.
We're working very well together.
And there's just a lot of energy.
Again, all that flows from President Trump.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And there's sort of, I think, in a lot of ways, competition across different agencies to deliver wins, but in a healthy way, in a collaborative way.
And so I think we're in a really unique time where President Trump had the four years in office, four years out of office, again, sort of honing the game plan in terms of the agenda that they wanted to execute on and coming in and just getting right to work.
unidentified
Again, it's been an incredibly busy time across all agencies.
At the FCC in particular, we're running a pretty aggressive agenda.
I think normally commission meetings are sometimes three or four or five items.
But what we're doing is we're running six, seven, eight, nine items.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
In fact, if we get to an October agenda, we're looking at a pretty packed agenda for that as well.
unidentified
But everyone is just hitting the ground running.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
They're focusing on wins, and it's a really unprecedented pace and nature of speed right now.
unidentified
Again, I think this goes back to the unique dynamic of this really being a second first term in a lot of ways.
I mean, there's no sort of feeling of lame duck.
It's all just energy.
NCTA recently came out with a study highlighting the economic impact of the industry, the people who represent our workforce, the billions and billions of dollars of investment and economic growth as a result of that investment.
But you've got a lot of people here at the show this week who are going to go back home and tell their story and who want to be helpful in growing the industry, make it successful, and help every American live better lives by connecting to each other, growing their businesses.
What advice do you have for all of us here to be better advocates, to Help us help the government, the FCC, work better to do your job.
How can we be a part of that success, the continued success story that we've built on here as we engage with you, as we engage with our communities?
We work with our states to find better policies.
What advice do you have for us?
Yeah, I think there's really a unique opportunity right now.
And when you go back, it's the same type of thing that, you know, why I try to get out of D.C. and I speak directly to tower climbers, to fiber splicers, and I ask them what is slowing you down.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
Because you'll hear things directly from the telecom crews, the construction workers that don't always make it through the, not that we don't love them, but the, you know, the layers of lawyers and lobbyists between them and officials in Washington.
And so when you go back out there, you know, continue to survey.
And when you see something, here's what's jamming me up as a practical matter.
unidentified
You know, bring it to you, bring it to us.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And we've got proceedings open right now where we can potentially take action on permitting reform.
unidentified
Obviously, federal lands continues to be a challenge out there.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
The FC doesn't have exclusive jurisdiction on that issue.
But there's other issues where we have teed up reforms that we want to get done.
I think this is a unique time to deliver those permitting results, particularly as the BEED program, which is being run by Commerce, is undergoing its reforms right now.
unidentified
So there'd be a lot of federal dollars going out the door.
Everybody wants to make sure that they go on the ground efficiently.
And so bring to us all the permitting and other challenges that you see.
brendan carr ▲ ● ▼
And thankfully, with you at the helm here, there's new leadership here that's going to be very responsive to all of that.
unidentified
And we've got a great working relationship.
And so I'm looking forward to the time to come here.
Well, thank you, Chairman.
And I think it's important for engagement because you're exactly right.
Washington sometimes is a place that thinks that can operate, thinks it can operate in a vacuum.
And that's the worst case scenario for us to be able to get out.
And I commend you for doing that, to get out into the rest of the country to see what's happening on the ground, to be there to see it firsthand.
But the people in this room do it each and every day.
So I encourage their participation, their engagement, and look forward to continuing to work with you.
So please help me thank Chairman Carr for his incredible work this morning, opportunity to be with us today, and look forward to our continued engagement over the coming years.
So Chairman Carr, thank you for being here.
Thanks, buddy.
Appreciate it.
Good to see you.
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