Pai 'Bullish' on Fiber, Says White House to Focus on Connecting Americans
Former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday that he expects the White House to focus on getting Americans broadband connections and that as chair, he would have handled the rural digital opportunity fund (RDOF) differently if he had known the BEAD program would follow it.
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“We obviously would have structured it differently,” Pai said on a Fiber Broadband Association webinar. “Our thought was that this was the only certain funding stream that we could think of, and so we had to structure that over the decade to come.” In order to obtain three votes, Pai said he had to broaden RDOF beyond what he originally planned, allowing “basically any technology” and opening it to “those who might be looking to build beyond the traditional footprints or even states.” Pai said he looks back at the debates over broadband speed during his time as chair as “just noise” and believes speed thresholds shouldn’t be a focus. “It doesn't really matter what the speed threshold is, as is pronounced by a particular majority of the FCC in Washington or by a lawmaker. What really matters is where the puck is going from a consumer perspective.”
Now with Searchlight Capital, Pai, who worked with the transition team of President Donald Trump, said Wednesday that his main advice to the new administration is to focus on paving the way for the goal “of getting every American connected who wants a high-quality connection.” Pai said he expects the White House to “get rid of some of the rules in Washington that are standing in the way of work crews putting fiber and other high-quality technologies into the ground and into the air in some cases.”
Pai said he's “bullish” on the future of fiber and sees opportunity for the industry in the rise of AI and telehealth. Telehealth applications “seem to fit the need for reducing costs in the health care system” and will become more important as rural areas see the closure of hospitals and other health care facilities.