FCC Praised by Both GOP Members as Simington Notes 4-0 Votes

The FCC's newest member lent his general support to the agency's thrust, following other recent supportive comments by Commissioner Brendan Carr (see 2104220036). The agency under acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has been focused on "doing things that just need doing," said Commissioner Nathan Simington during a virtual FCBA keynote Friday. Rosenworcel is "really managing the agency effectively," Simington said: "If you look at our voting records since I've joined up, there's a lot of unanimous decisions." There's a "lot of work we can get done," he said, and "that's exactly what we've been doing all year."

“That was not an errant remark,” emailed a Simington aide. “He meant what he said.” It's not the first time he expressed support for how Rosenworcel is leading the commission, the staffer noted.

The FCC should "celebrate" the Supreme Court's Prometheus ruling "for the unanimous win that it is and look forward to the pro-competitive steps in the upcoming quadrennial review" (see 2104010067), Simington said. "Where consumers have so many options for news content, pushing the same content in two of the top four stations and market makes no sense." Any changes to broadcast rules "would really require a collaborative effort of understanding and communication across all of society," he said. "The worst thing we could do would be to prejudge the answer."

Simington is interested in exploring receiver performance as the FCC continues to look at how to best use spectrum (see 2104080053). "The commission has the potential to serve as a nerve center, allowing industry to engage in collective action for the collective good." It's critical the commission examine incumbent usage in bands "that can be characterized as underutilized," Simington said: "We have to make sure that whatever we do [in those bands] doesn't leave people out in the cold and doesn't leave any kind of underfunded local users holding a bag that they can't manage to carry."

"More needs to be done to connect every American," Simington said. The FCC has a role in expanding broadband access, but "we also need economic leadership at the national level and a favorable environment for investment," he said. Rural home connectivity may be the "only way for their children to access educational opportunities," he said. Telehealth has also been "vital" during the pandemic and will "play a larger role in society going forward" (see 2102030034). COVID-19 exacerbated the broadband accessibility crisis, Simington said, and "we can do better to serve those Americans least able to pay looking forward." The rise in network capacity is a hopeful sign, he said. "We see speeds even increasing," Simington said: "America has networks that are maybe a little more future-proof than we would have thought going into this."

The Communications Decency Act and Telecom Act have aged "shockingly well," Simington said (see 2102080054). The FCC "has always found ways to make the changes that are needed over time to give interpretations that are needed," he said. "There's certainly a case to be made that the regulatory toolkit could do with a little updating," the commissioner said. "Now would not be an inappropriate time for the question to come up with how to address it."