FCC Chair Brendan Carr Talks Electromagnetic Spectrum
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There's no business like small business. Hiscox Small Business Insurance. Let me get back to our special coverage of Milken. I'm pleased to say that the chair of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, joins us right now. Brendan, great to see you here. I know you've been making the rounds. You had a panel here. Everyone right now wants to know what the FCC's role is right now in the broader policies, particularly when it comes to infrastructure being rolled out, by the way.

by the White House. Yeah, thanks so much. President Trump has been very clear. He wants to unleash America's private sector to build again. If you look back the last four years, so many infrastructure projects got bogged down in reams of red tape. We saw it with this $42 billion internet infrastructure plan that went nowhere. And so he's

directed us to deregulate. In fact, we've engaged in the most massive deregulation effort at the FCC that we've ever done. It's underway right now. We've closed and looking to close 2,000 dockets that have been opened. But probably the most important thing we can do for the economy right now is spectrum. These are the airways that your smartphones use. We made a lot of progress on that during the first Trump administration. We fell behind a little bit

during Biden. We need to move hundreds of megahertz out in the marketplace. That's actually deflationary. It's going to drive down prices for consumers. It's going to be pro-competitive too. Those dockets, I mean, what actually accelerated that? What was the outcome? Yeah, so right now we're targeting all of those. We're seeking comment on it. We've already closed over 100 dockets. We're doing a massive deregulation initiative. And permitting reform is so key. We have these rules on the books that force broadband providers like AT&T to invest billions of dollars in old

copper line networks, but we're taking a fresh look at that so they can move that investment over to high-speed IP networks. So it's effectively moving billions of dollars of capital into new networks. These are some of the economic agendas that we're running at the agency. So what's the timeline in all of this? It's a lot to get through, but what is the timeline that you guys are looking at? It is our direction to move on Trump speeds. We're moving very quickly. The first 100 days already.

We've taken action across many of these fronts. Also, national security. We set up a new council on national security at the FCC. We're making sure that we're not vulnerable to threats that come from communist China, for instance. We're looking at making sure that people can make and manufacture things here in the U.S. as well. And so we're running a full economic agenda, and we're pretty proud of it. What are you hearing from members of the telecom community about what they can do in terms of manufacturing here in the United States? Yeah, there's a lot we can do. For instance, no piece of electronics can be used in the U.S. unless it's tested in Alaska.

But so far, 75% of those testings take place inside China. So we're looking at steps we can do to reshore a lot of that testing as well, and that'll help give U.S. manufacturers a boost. How long would it take to do that? You know, I think it can be pretty short order. We already have some of that testing here already, so we're taking steps to sort of further do it. But these are just, you know, parts of the pieces we're running at the FCC. It's a really important agenda. Again, we've got to unleash America's private sector. They were held back too long by different red tapes and regulations.

Permitting reform again, as I mentioned, a lot of state and local regulations still slow down. Internet bills, there's a role for the FCC to step in there and help clear the way. But spectrum, permitting reform, deregulation, that's the driving agenda at the FCC. I think it's going to be great for the economy. How unified is this approach from the administration? We had the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology on a little bit earlier. He obviously talked a lot about reclaiming the U.S.'s lead in technology relative to the rest of the world, particularly when it comes to A.I.,

Is the FCC a part of that? Yeah, for sure. Look, President Trump has put together just an all-star team, particularly this second administration. Everybody is fully aligned. They're executing the president's agenda. You mentioned AI. I mean, that's going to be the use case that's going to drive so many of these telecom networks. That's why we have to get more spectrum out there. That's why we have to make it easier to invest

in these new high-speed networks. When you look at the data demands of AI, data generally is going up, but AI is going to increase through the roof. Where do we stand though on Spectrum? Because I've heard that before. What's out there?

And even though some of the spectrum that has been released over the last few years, there have been some concerns that they might be causing interference, particularly with some of the recent incidents that we've had in aviation here. Can that sort of coexist altogether? Yeah, look, you know, thankfully, President Trump has a playbook on this. In 2017, we had fallen far behind China.

He stepped up and said, look, I want to lead in 5G. I want to lead in 6G. We cleared hundreds of megahertz of spectrum. We fell behind China. The reality is we are falling behind China right now. But we have the playbook. President Trump is going to step in. We're working right now. Chairman Ted Cruz in the Senate is working hard to get spectrum across the finish line. We can put it in reconciliation. And that's going to help pay for a lot of the efforts that people want to do in there. It's going to be

$80 billion or more to be raised if we start auctioning this spectrum off. Chair Carr, what does this do for people who really don't have access when it comes to telecommunications, our rural areas? We've heard so much of this post-pandemic. Everyone has talked about

helping these areas for a long time. How do you actually help those Americans? Yeah, there's a couple things we're doing there. When we get more spectrum out that will bring people across the digital divide, will give people more competitive options, but also think about this new generation of low-Earth orbit satellites, whether it's Starlink, Kuiper just started launching, there's other providers out there. When we bring that together as part of the solution,

That's really the long-term key to bridging the digital divide in a cost-effective way. Well, that's interesting that you bring up Elon Musk, Starlink, Doge. We know his certainly close relationship with the president. I mean, how much of the work you are doing is kind of focusing on his kind of technology? Well, look, I think the space economy in general is probably one of our top three issues that we're doing at the FCC. We need to start moving much more quickly. It took years to get the permits necessary.

for a lot of the communications for these satellites. We need to be doing that in a matter of days and weeks, but it's not just Starlink that will benefit. I think you're doing it safely, though. There is some concern about how many satellites are up in space at this point. We just did a big deep dive here at Bloomberg about concerns about satellites coming down. I mean, there is...

a process here. How do you do this safely? Yeah, we feel comfortable. There's orbital debris mitigation rules that are in place. We license all the satellites at the end of the day. We feel very comfortable that we can still get thousands of more satellites out there. And again, the new trend is direct-to-people cell phone. And that's something that's just emerging. In fact, we've given providers authority to go higher power from these LEO satellite systems to get even better direct-to-cell capabilities. This is a really exciting area.

I want you to talk, though, particularly when it comes to the satellites in space. There's obviously a lot of competition between nations for that real estate, if you will, in the air. The U.S. obviously had the first mover advantage. China has been launching like crazy. India now trying to get into the mix. And we're seeing other countries, including in Latin America, also try to find space up there.

Does this become a conflict at some point? Look, I think this is going to be a very important geopolitical issue. As you know, China is trying to launch their own version of whether it's Starlink or Kuiper. And when they're able to pair Belt and Road with high-speed internet provided from satellites with their own CCP content moderation filters, that's a real threat going forward. And that's why it's so imperative that the FCC move quickly to allow US providers, again, a full range of them, to launch, to compete, to provide coverage. And so that's what we're going to do with the agency.

to ask you just about mergers and acquisitions, consolidation in the industry, and not necessarily just consolidation, but the idea of strategic partnerships and other things, things that in the past, not only under the Biden administration, but even under previous administrations on the Republican side, have

maybe found, I won't say a roadblock, but maybe let's say a road bump, a speed bump, if you will, in getting those things done. What type of assurances can you give the industry that if they do find a need and a desire for those types of strategic partnerships and acquisitions,

that the FCC won't stand in the way? Yeah, we're certainly open for business. We're talking to lots of providers. We have a number of deals before us right now. One thing that I've said to everybody, though, is if you have invidious forms of DEI discrimination, that's something that I think you need to get the house in order before you come to the FCC for an approval. That's one of the gating criteria that I've been looking at. But we are open for business. We want investment. President Trump wants companies building in America, investing in America, and we're going to play our part.

Paramount, CBS, that deal. What can we expect? We're running our normal course process on that. Again, we probably have three or four big multi-billion dollar deals at the FCC right now. We're working through all of them. We cleared one smaller telecom deal earlier this year. It usually takes about 180 days to get through these deals. We're about 100 days into the

What's really the sticking point, though, at this point? At this point, we're just running our normal course process, whether it's the CBS deal. We have a Verizon Frontier transaction before us. We have a T-Mobile U.S. cellular. We're just getting our teams crunching on all the deals right now, and it's just normal course. All right. So no timeline? Yeah, no timeline to announce here, unfortunately. All right. Listen, we appreciate it. We know you're a busy man. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. FCC Chair Brendan Carr joining us here at Milken.

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