Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR

Re: 	Inquiry Concerning Deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability to All Americans in a Reasonable and Timely Fashion, GN Docket No. 20-269.

Since 2017, the FCC’s top priority has been to close the digital divide.  And today’s report confirms that our efforts have enabled the private sector to build out high-speed Internet infrastructure at an unprecedented pace.  Indeed, the digital divide has nearly been cut in half since the end of 2016.  All of these new connections have been enabled by common sense reforms to our infrastructure rules—reforms that allowed the private sector to build a record-breaking 46,000 new cell sites in 2019 alone, which is more than the combined number of sites previously built from 2015 through 2018.  The FCC also worked tirelessly to free up the airwaves needed to power these new cell sites.  Indeed, the Commission has recently made more than six gigahertz of spectrum available for licensed 5G services in addition to thousands of megahertz of unlicensed spectrum.    

I am grateful for the chance to have led the FCC’s wireless infrastructure reforms over the past three years, and I hope that the Commission continues to advance the proven and successful approaches to infrastructure and spectrum that are now delivering results in communities across the country.



2