Telco Regulations Need to Be Made '5G Ready,' Carr Says

The transition to 5G will need "fundamental changes" to the FCC's permitting and regulatory structures, including modernization of the local, state and federal regimes that govern infrastructure deployment, Commissioner Brendan Carr told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Telecommunications and E-Commerce Committee Thursday, according to his prepared remarks. The current regulatory regime can't support the tenfold to hundredfold increase in small cells and millions of miles of new fiber that will be necessary, he said. Carr said in coming weeks he will lay out "concrete steps" for making regulatory structures "5G ready." And in a reference to the TV series The Office, Carr jokingly advocated the agency adopt a "Dunder Mifflin Rule" that a regulation that benefits only paper suppliers "is void ab initio."