Carr Open-Minded on 4.9 GHz Draft

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the biggest question mark as the agency considers a draft order and Further NPRM on the 4.9 GHz band, indicated Wednesday he may support a proposal to take another look at the band, teed up for a Sept. 30 commissioner vote. Carr was the lone dissenter (see 2105270071) when the FCC stayed rules OK’d last year giving states control.

“It’s sort of two steps back, one step forward, but … I’m open to being in favor of more options,” Carr said. While he supported last year’s order, “it’s not necessarily that’s the only way to do it,” Carr told an American Enterprise Institute webinar. He’s “open” to proposals in the 4.9 GHz draft and commended acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel “for moving back to getting 4.9 on the board again in a relatively quick fashion.”

The FCC has gotten little input since the draft was posted last week, with no ex parte filings in docket 07-100. FCC officials told us there has been little action, but the process is still early.

The Public Safety Spectrum Alliance is looking at the draft. “It’s moving in the right direction for public safety,” Western Fire Chiefs Association CEO Jeff Johnson, an alliance leader, told us. “Rosenworcel and the commissioners have actively engaged public safety and are listening to our needs,” he said: “We welcome this next step in the process.” Other groups declined to comment.

Carr criticized Rosenworcel and Democrats in other areas, saying the current FCC is moving too slowly on spectrum for 5G. “Spectrum policy is tough” and requires “the expenditure of political capital,” he said. Working with other federal agencies isn’t enough, he said. “We can continue to coordinate, we can continue to deepen relationships,” he said. “We’re the FCC and we are charged and called upon to make the right decisions, the tough decisions and push through when the public interest is served by freeing up spectrum.”

Former Chairman Ajit Pai “accumulated and expended political capital to free up spectrum,” Carr said. “We’re going to have to continue to do that.” The FCC declined comment.

Carr called for more focus on Communications Decency Act Section 230 and promoting free speech. “Online speech is an issue,” he said: The FCC has "a role to play in creating a framework that’s going to promote more speech.”

Carr cited the risks of “financial services deplatforming, financial services censorship.” He noted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is also chief of payment company Square. “Are we going to be exporting Twitter’s blocked list into all these Square and digital services platforms that he’s also in charge of?” Carr asked. Regulators should ask those questions as they look at Square’s proposed $29 billion buy of Australia’s Afterpay, he said. Square didn’t comment.

On USF, Carr noted a recent study by economists Hal Singer and Ted Tatos that supports paying for the fund through charges to major tech platforms, based on their digital advertising revenue. The study “makes a lot of sense from a policy perspective because these big tech companies generate a lot of internet traffic, so they’re causing costs,” he told AEI: “They also benefit from greater connectivity.” Carr highlighted the study in a news release after the webinar.

In other areas, the 2-2 FCC continues to make progress, Carr said. “We’ve gotten a tremendous amount done” though leading a divided commission isn’t easy, he said: Rosenworcel has “found a way to work together, move to the middle.”