Federal Communications Commission FCC 23-22 STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR Re: In the Matter of Single Network Future: Supplemental Coverage from Space, Space Innovation, GN Docket No. 23-65, IB Docket No. 22-271, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (March 16, 2023) Just a few weeks back, I was in Barcelona for this year’s Mobile World Congress where regulators and industry stakeholders from across the globe gather to discuss the latest hot topics in wireless. From the panels to the pull-asides, one issue in particular kept coming up: the emerging convergence of space and terrestrial mobile services. And it’s easy to understand why. These innovative new services embody the changing competitive landscape that consumers enjoy today. We no longer live in a world where wireline simply competes with wireline or where mobile just competes with mobile. Increasingly we’re seeing cable providers serve mobile wireless customers, while traditional mobile wireless carriers add customers to their in-home broadband services. The silos are fading away, and consumers are reaping the rewards. The item we adopt today recognizes that consumers don’t care whether the signal was beamed to their device from a tower on top of an office building or from a satellite orbiting the Earth. They only care that they have access to an affordable, high-quality connection. Space mobile services, like those envisioned by this item, will help extend coverage even further across the country to keep consumers connected across rural and remote areas. Today’s item also helps us take another step towards extending America’s space leadership. And that is good for our economy and national security. Indeed, space—as they say—is the ultimate high ground. And space leadership has long been a priority for the U.S. However, with the space economy growing at an accelerating clip thanks to new investments from public and private sectors around the world, we must re-double our efforts to ensure America is in the driver’s seat. So I have been pleased with the Commission’s work in recent years towards getting our policies right. With this new proceeding we also need to keep walking and chewing gum at the same time. That means we need to modernize our broader regulatory framework for sat in a way that accelerates the processing of applications and encourages more providers to base their operations right here in the United States. The bipartisan “SAT Streamlining Act” by the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee would do just that. I look forward to working alongside my colleagues here at the agency and Congress to advance our shared interest in extending our global leadership in space. As we move forward in this proceeding with standing up this framework we also need to move quickly to process and approve space mobile applications that are already pending at the FCC. We can’t let this new proceeding slow down those ongoing reviews. In closing, I want to thank the staff from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and International Bureau for their hard work on the item before us today. It has my support.