Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR

Re: 	Modernizing Unbundling and Resale Requirements in an Era of Next-Generation Networks and Services, WC Docket No. 19-308.

America’s Internet providers are investing and building out their networks at a record pace.  Telecom crews deployed over 450,000 route miles of high-speed fiber in 2019 alone, which is enough to wrap around the Earth over 18 times.  Providers also set a record for the number of new homes passed with high-speed fiber at 6.5 million, which represents a 16 percent increase since 2018.  
The FCC has helped accelerate these private sector builds by putting in place a regulatory framework that reflects the pro-competitive goals of the 1996 Act.  When Congress acted in the 1990s, it did so against the backdrop of a telecom industry dominated by local monopolies.  So the 1996 Act aimed to give potential competitors a way into these markets.  One way it achieved this goal was through “unbundling” obligations that allowed upstarts to offer service while they built out their own, competing facilities.  
In many respects the 1996 Act has been a success, as almost 25 years later, we are now benefiting from all these competing networks.  And we have reached a point where rules intended to encourage investment can actually begin to hamper it.  Technological convergence has allowed previously siloed industries to compete against one another—fiber, fixed wireless, mobile 5G, low-latency satellite—can all compete to win customers from each other.  And when you have a fiercely competitive market capable of attracting massive investment, it’s time to take a fresh look at our rules.  We do that today by updating our rules, and we do so in a way that is consistent with the important compromise reached by the private sector on these admittedly difficult issues.  So I want to thank them for their effort to find common ground.
And I want to thank the Wireline Competition Bureau for their diligent work on this item.  It has my support.



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