When we get back to our special coverage of Milin, I'm pleased to say that the chair of the US 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 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 with this $42 billion internet infrastructure plan that went nowhere. And so he 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 open. But probably the most important thing we can do for the economy right now is spectrum. These are the airwaves that your smartphones use. We made a lot of progress on it 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. You know, 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 speed. So, 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 US as well. And so, we're running a full economic agenda. 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 US unless it's tested in a lab. 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 us 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 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 regulation still slows down internet builds. 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 Policy on a little bit earlier. He obviously talked a lot about reclaiming the US's lead in technology relative to the rest of the world, particularly when it comes to AI. 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, you know, 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 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 and 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 can be raised if we start auctioning the spectrum off.
