White House 5G Event to Take Deep Dive on Economics, Cutting Red Tape
The White House 5G Summit scheduled for Friday (see 1809170049) will feature remarks by high-profile administration officials and four breakout sessions after about an hour of speeches, said industry officials. The White House isn’t commenting and hasn’t released an agenda. Industry observers said it’s not clear whether the administration will lay out additional thinking since a symposium by NTIA (see 1806120056). The focus is expected to be broader than the June summit, with an emphasis on ensuring infrastructure deployment is driven by market forces, not limited by regulation or red tape.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
National Security Adviser John Bolton may address the approximately 100 attendees, industry officials said. Other speakers could include Justin Clark, President Donald Trump’s director of public liaison, and Tim Pataki, special assistant to the president for the Office of Public Liaison. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr are also expected to attend, as is NTIA Administrator David Redl and Matt Lira of the White House Office of American Innovation. The larger group will then break up into four breakout sessions -- spectrum, deployment, standards and applications, officials said. The breakouts are to be held elsewhere on the White House grounds. The FCC and NTIA also didn’t comment. Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel wasn't invited, an aide said.
“Seems like an opportunity for the White House to learn about industry perspective on what 5G standards, deployments and applications will look like,” said an association executive invited to attend.
Industry officials welcomed the focus on 5G. “I look forward to participating and hearing what they have to say, and appreciate continued focus on these important issues,” said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association. “We need continued focus on reliable data, access to spectrum and certainty regarding streamlined infrastructure deployment policies.”
The White House is right to include rural interests in the summit, said Claude Aiken, president of the Wireless ISP Association. “We need to make sure that the benefits of next generation technologies flow to all Americans, so that our nation's 5G policies work to close the digital divide."
New America Wireless Future Program Director Michael Calabrese wasn't invited. “If the White House invited or listened to consumer groups, what they would learn is that like 4G, the most robust and productive 5G wireless ecosystem will not rely entirely on big mobile carriers, which is the FCC’s current industrial policy,” Calabrese said. “5G will be more ubiquitous and affordable for consumers if Wi-Fi gets the spectrum it needs, at 5.9 and 6 GHz, to keep pace. And IoT will flourish faster and at lower cost if thousands of enterprises, venues and rural ISPs have direct access to both interference-protected and unlicensed spectrum to deploy and customize networks on a very localized basis.”
"Speeding 5G deployment is emerging as a top economic priority for this administration,” said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. “We are seeing all of the key agencies coalescing around a comprehensive set of light-touch policies. With some luck, America's new 5G policy will be one of the few public policy areas where we have strong bipartisan consensus."
The summit makes clear “the White House's commitment to wireless and 5G in particular,” said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics. “Anytime the White House puts emphasis behind this bipartisan topic, the pace picks up. The FCC, especially Commissioner Carr, has taken the lead in making America more competitive through its 5G related initiatives like spectrum and siting rule reform, but we need to pick up the pace in the other executive agencies.”
Redl has shown “he is not the least bit doctrinaire in his approach to spectrum management,” said Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy Project Director Larry Downes. “He is direct in saying that under his leadership, the NTIA is serious about considering all options for optimizing spectrum resources, including those proposed in the previous administration.”