FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez discussed spectrum policy, net neutrality, and their favorite tech at CES on Wednesday. Carr has criticized the Commission’s effort to reinstate Net Neutrality rules. The move would classify broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, opening internet providers up to more regulatory oversight from the Commission.
Carr called Title II a “backwards looking regime that made sense in the 1930s,” he said during a CES session on Wednesday, reports Broadband Breakfast. He supports a less expansive set of rules. “This idea that we should, as a consumer.
Gomez defended the proposed Net Neutrality reinstatement, saying broadband is “central to everybody’s lives, and it really is important, I think, to have guardrails on the service to make sure that all consumers are benefiting from a competitive, innovative product. We don’t have a national framework to ensure that, instead we have a patchwork of state laws,” she explained.
Concerning the loss of the FCC’s spectrum auction authority, Gomez said she would “really love” to see that reinstated, according to Broadband Breakfast. “I don’t think people appreciate how long it takes to actually get a spectrum auction done. There’s so much pre-work that has to be done, and we can’t do any of that” without the authority, she explained. Carr agreed with Gomez.
Asked about his favorite piece of tech from the CES floor so far, Carr said his favorite technology that uses unlicensed spectrum is his Bluetooth headset. “I’m almost exclusively on that thing,” he said.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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