Carr: Trump Administration Wants to Work With Caribbean Region
The Trump administration is more focused on the Caribbean region than previous administrations, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said at a meeting of the trade association for telecom operators across that region. “We are putting our region, the Americas, first” and “we are doing so through actions, not just words,” he said. Carr’s remarks were posted Tuesday. Carr noted that the last FCC chairman to address CANTO was Ajit Pai in 2018.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“We are called upon to work together to expand opportunity and stand united against malign actors that do not have the region’s best interests in mind,” Carr said. Working together, "we can build a new era in U.S.-Caribbean relations, grounded firmly in the timeless values that bind our nations.” Regulators “need to be nimble and keep our eyes on where the proverbial puck is going, not where it has been in the past,” he said.
Carr said the FCC is focused on cutting red tape. He noted items addressing copper retirement and pole attachments scheduled for votes at the July 24 FCC open meeting (see 2507030049). “We are pursuing a comprehensive deregulatory agenda at the FCC to replace heavy-handed rules, with smart, simple, and light-touch regulation,” he said. The FCC is also moving aggressively on spectrum, he said. In the next few years, “we intend to work closely with our allies and partners in the region on spectrum harmonization for next-generation terrestrial mobile and satellite services,” he said.