Carr Urges Early Release of Broadband Maps

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr laid out a “road map” for actions he hopes the regulator will take this year on spectrum, during an American Enterprise Institute webinar Monday. He wants the FCC to finalize broadband maps this fall, suggesting it focus on relatively basic ones that could be finished more quickly. Until maps are completed, the FCC is “a bit stalled” on launching a Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase II or 5G Fund auction, he said: “Congress provided us a lot of funding … to get that job done. … Then if we want to add to those maps over time, we should.” Carr expects continuing problems and “tough calls” to make more federal spectrum available for wireless. He hopes “we end up with the right leadership to push forward.” Carr said that if the FCC returns to Communications Act Title II rules for net neutrality, 5G could suffer. “You may bless an individual use case, but you could cast doubt” on others, he said. The challenge in the 12 GHz band, the subject of a January NPRM (see 2101130067), is mainly “a technical one,” Carr said. “If we can get 5G terrestrial use in 12 and continue to get the public interest benefits that come from this new generation of low-earth orbit satellites, that’s great,” he said. “That’s what the engineering at this moment is sorting through.” Carr wants a federal lands desk at the FCC on siting issues: “There’s not a ton that we have authority to do with respect to federal lands,” but a desk “would at least give people on the outside a one-stop shop to bring their issues.” Complete work on the 6 GHz Further NPRM, allowing very low-power devices to operate at 14 dBm, Carr urged. Schedule a 2.5 GHz auction as soon as possible, he said, and launch a proceeding to look at updating rules for the U-NII-2C band (5470-5725 MHz). “Equipment manufacturers don’t even bother to include the band in many 5 GHz Wi-Fi devices.”