Gomez Explains Vote Supporting Section 706 NOI
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said Wednesday that, despite concerns, she voted for a notice of inquiry to study revisions in how the FCC examines competition in its Telecom Act Section 706 reports to Congress. Commissioners approved the NOI earlier in the week, and it was taken off the agenda for Thursday’s meeting (see 2508050056). While Gomez’s comments on the NOI were predominantly negative, she said she voted yes to give the public a chance to weigh in.
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“How we measure this country’s progress of connecting everyone, everywhere to the number one tool to participate in modern day life is important, and we should not retreat from the bold and forward-looking vision this agency had previously embraced,” Gomez said.
The NOI asks “whether recent changes that provided a more accurate picture of broadband availability, such as broadband affordability and broadband adoption, are even needed,” she noted. That comes in the wake of the lapse of the affordable connectivity program, “which forced many households to choose between continuing their broadband service or paying for food or medicine.”
Some suggest that under the Telecom Act, “availability is the only metric Congress allows to measure broadband deployment success,” Gomez said. The act doesn’t “require this agency to view broadband availability with one eye closed and the other one half-open.” That argument “ignores recent legislation like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was enacted to broaden the scope of that approach.”