Trump FCC Abandons Efforts To Make U.S. Broadband Fast And Affordable
from the this-is-why-we-can't-have-nice-things dept
Section 706 of the Telecom Act requires the FCC to determine whether broadband is being deployed “on a reasonable and timely basis” to everyone. If the answer is no, the law says the FCC must “take immediate action to accelerate deployment of such capability by removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market.”
For decades, the FCC has tap-danced around this mandate. Corruption and regulatory capture has resulted in a U.S. telecom sector that’s barely competitive, highly consolidated, and dominated by a handful of regional telecom monopolies. Those monopolies don’t have to try very hard to expand access, lower prices, or improve speeds. The FCC has been historically feckless about doing anything about it.
Every so often the FCC tries to do the absolute bare minimum to improve on this dynamic. Like during the Biden administration, when the Biden FCC last year boosted the definition of broadband to a still pathetic 100 Mbps downstream, 10 Mbps upstream, pledged to hold gigabit access as a future goal, and made a thin pledge to maybe take a closer look at why U.S. broadband is so expensive.
Not surprisingly, the Trump administration is killing all of that.
In a flimsy explanation, Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr claims that having meaningful standards and ensuring that broadband is affordable are “extraneous” matters. To further prop up his agency’s apathy, he points to the recent Loper Bright Supreme Court ruling that curtail the FCC’s authority to do anything that might upset a big U.S. corporation:
“The Carr FCC’s proposal points to a Supreme Court ruling that limited the ability of federal agencies to interpret ambiguous laws. Given that ruling, “we believe it is most prudent to strictly adhere to the statutory text,” the proposal said.”
We’ve noted repeatedly how this is the legal and logical incoherence at the heart of Trump and Brendan Carr’s FCC. Carr wants to wield FCC authority like a tyrant, leveraging often completely nonexistent agency power to force TikTok to sell itself to Trump’s buddies, bully telecom companies into being more racist, or cajole media companies into softening their journalism of our idiot king.
The problem is, only one side can “win” this standoff, and it’s corporate power. Carr can saber rattle and threaten all he likes, but the primary agenda of Trump 2.0 (outside of the racism) is delivering the final killing blow to federal consumer protection, regulatory autonomy, and corporate oversight.
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