Today: FCC Cooperation with TRAI, Chairman Pai on Broadband Policy and Regulation
FCC Cooperation With Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
The FCC announced that during a meeting on the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, FCC Chairman Pai and TRAI Chairman R.S. Sharma signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for cooperation between the two agencies. The nonbinding agreement sets out a framework for the mutually beneficial exchange of ideas through activities such as best practices sharing, bilateral workshops, and digital video conferences. To guide these efforts, the FCC and TRAI have determined topics of shared interest, including accelerating broadband deployment and aligning spectrum policy to meet increasing mobile broadband demand. More information about the International Bureau’s efforts to facilitate bilateral, regional, and multilateral engagement with the FCC’s regulatory counterparts around the world is available here.
FCC Chairman Pai on Broadband Policy and Regulation
At a speech at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, FCC Chairman Pai discussed digital empowerment and the importance of high speed access to the Internet. He said that “as Chairman of the FCC, I will pursue policies that promote infrastructure investment, foster innovation, and expand next-generation networks across the United States.” He noted that “[c]apital doesn’t have to be spent in the communications sector. And the more difficult government makes the business case for deployment, the less likely it is that broadband providers big and small will invest the billions of dollars needed to connect consumers with digital opportunity.”
He said that the Wheeler FCC’s decision to reclassify broadband internet access as a telecommunications service had injected uncertainty into the broadband market and resulted in the first-ever decline in broadband investment outside of a recession. However, “today, the torch at the FCC has been passed to a new generation, dedicated to renewal as well as change. Going forward, the FCC will not focus on denying Americans free data or issuing heavy handed decrees inspired by the distant past. Instead, we will seek to advance the networks of the future and the innovative new products and services that take advantage of those networks. And as we do so, we will preserve a free and open Internet.” Pai said government does have a role to play, for instance “when a marketplace that isn’t competitive doesn’t serve consumers well. So our approach will be not zero regulation, but light-touch regulation—rules backed by long-standing principles of competition law. We will also create incentives to deploy broadband in parts of our country that private investment hasn’t yet reached.”
Pai said that the FCC’s approach to broadband policy would be practical, not ideological and that his means: removing barriers to innovation and investment instead of creating new ones; taking targeted action to address real problems in the marketplace instead of imposing broad, preemptive regulations; and respecting principles of economics, physics, and law and acting with humility as we regulate one of the most dynamic marketplaces history has ever known.
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The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.
