STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR Re: Allocation and Service Rules for the 1675-1680 MHz Band, WT Docket No. 19-116 Under this FCC’s leadership, the Commission has focused on winning the race to 5G by modernizing our rules to reflect new technology. Our reforms have centered on two areas: infrastructure and spectrum. On infrastructure, our old rules were written for 200-foot macro towers, when we know that 5G will require millions of new small cells to densify wireless networks. So in March of last year, we updated the federal rules governing small cell builds, and in September, we set reasonable fee and time limits on the local approval process. The results? The U.S. has leapfrogged our global competitors. We now have the largest 5G buildout in the world. Now, that may not sit well with the naysayers who are convinced we’re losing to China. But the fact is the U.S. will have 92 5G builds by year’s end while China has announced plans for zero. On spectrum, the race to 5G can only be won with an all-of-the-above approach: high-, mid-, and low-band spectrum. On high-band, we completed the first millimeter wave auction in the world in January, we will finish our work on 24 GHz later this month, and then we will move on to auction 37, 39, and 47 GHz later this year. On low-band, we completed the 600 MHz incentive auction in 2017, are overseeing the repack of broadcasters currently, and moved forward on 900 MHz. Which brings us to the mid-band. In 2017, one of the first actions the new FCC took was to launch a rulemaking to look at mid-band spectrum—from 3 GHz up. There were plenty of people who didn’t see mid-band as a top priority back then, and they questioned whether our efforts to identify large swaths of 5G spectrum in these bands would bear fruit. The FCC’s progress since then has helped change that narrative. On 3.5 GHz, Commissioner O’Rielly led the agency’s efforts to ensure that this mid-band spectrum will work in the real world. On 2.5 GHz, the Chairman advanced a plan that could unlock nearly 200 MHz of prime mid-band spectrum. In the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, the Chairman moved quickly with concrete steps to free up hundreds of megahertz of spectrum. On the C-band—3.7 GHz to 4.2 GHz—I put forward my thoughts in a speech two months ago and just last week the agency put out a notice that seeks focused comment. Today, we continue the two-and-a-half year effort to free up prime, mid-band spectrum. The 5 MHz before us is a small sliver of spectrum, to be sure. But if it’s combined with adjacent and nearby channels, we could have a 40 MHz block that offers high-throughput at great distance. Those are excellent characteristics for next-gen mobile broadband. I remain confident that with continued hard work and our all-of-the-above spectrum strategy, America will win the race to 5G. And this item is one step towards the finish line. It has my support.