In a recent address, Chairman Ajit Pai stressed this as one of four “foundational principles” that guide his FCC in encouraging the development of new technologies and high-speed networks. Speaking before the 18TH annual Global Symposium for Regulators in Geneva, Switzerland, he summarized how the Commission deals with emerging technologies and networks.
“Regulatory humility,” he said, entails the government’s restraint from micromanaging, “or more accurately, (to) try to micromanage—their future.” He expressed a “strong belief…that government should resist pre-emptive regulation when there is no market failure or consumer harm. One should not broadly regulate based solely on anticipation. Regulatory humility also means that government shouldn’t pick winners and losers in the marketplace.”
Facilitation, he said, rather than frustration, should be a second guiding principle in fostering innovation and investment. “That’s why the FCC has launched an across-the-board review to identify regulations that need to be revised or repealed altogether. In particular, we’re cutting regulatory red tape that holds back infrastructure deployment.”
Chairman Pai pointed to innovation, “by freeing up spectrum for wireless services and making it available for flexible use,” as the third prong in his regulatory approach toward promoting new and developing technologies and networks. He said that listing the many ways the Commission is “making low-band, mid-band and high-band spectrum available…would eat up more than the remainder of my (speaking) time.”
So, with time to finish his presentation, he named universal access as his fourth key to the development and deployment of emerging technologies, stating that his “top priority as FCC Chairman has been making sure that every American can benefit from the digital revolution.”
We cannot agree more.
