Kerrigan in MORNING CONSULT: Agency Disagreement is Holding Back U.S. Innovation

By SBE Council at 16 November, 2021, 12:52 pm

A frustrating development happened on the road to 5G.

As two of America's broadband providers were just about to rollout a new 5G frequency band in early December, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a surprise warning about "safety." As SBE Council president & CEO Karen Kerrigan wrote in a November 15 Morning Consult Op-ed, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - the expert agency on spectrum and its uses - fully vetted safety issues, among other matters, in their comprehensive review and study of C-band use for 5G technologies. She writes:

The Federal Communications Commission, the government agency in charge of airwaves like the C-band, argues that the available evidence fails to support the notion that this 5G usage will impact aviation.

Government policy and actions should be accelerating and encouraging 5G rollout, not to mention American innovation and leadership in general. Now, unfortunately, due to the disagreement, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. announced a self-initiated 30-day pause to allow the FAA and FCC time to resolve their differences. Any delay in 5G rollouts is not a good development for American consumers and small businesses - or for our nation's collective efforts to win the international 5G race against global competitors such as China.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that government agencies have swooped in and attempted to put the brakes on the expansion of consumer wireless services.

Read the full piece here.