US 'Lazy' About Driving Standards Internationally: Sen. Warner
The U.S. “got lazy” in the last 15 or so years about participating in standards-setting bodies and paid the price with China dictating standards for 5G, said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., at SCTE’s TechExpo event Tuesday in Washington. “China flooded the zone,” he said, while the U.S. hasn't been sending as many people to standards-setting bodies. China’s 5G success is a “wake-up call,” and industry and government should agree that the U.S. has “got to get back in the game” and invest resources in standards-setting efforts.
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Warner was also critical about the lack of BEAD deployment during the Biden administration. “We way overwrote the regulations.” But the Trump administration revising the terms of the program wasn't good, either, Warner said, arguing that getting money out to deployment projects needs to be the priority. There must be spending on broadband affordability as well, he said. “Nothing makes less sense” than big spending on infrastructure if there won’t be wide adoption of service.
Warner and House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told the cable industry audience that keeping the 6 GHz band for unlicensed operations like Wi-Fi is important. While Warner praised the budget reconciliation bill's order to create an 800 MHz spectrum pipeline for auction, he said not setting the 6 GHz band aside was “a huge mistake.” Leaving the Wi-Fi spectrum exposed “will come back and bite us.” But, Guthrie added, “we get it, you guys need spectrum” for innovation.
Guthrie said Congress needs to work on permitting reforms and expressed hope that there would be bipartisan buy-in. He also talked up the need for Cable Act reform in light of streaming services competing with cable. Similarly situated services need to be treated similarly, he argued.
In addition, Guthrie said there’s a need for a national AI standard rather than individual regulatory efforts by state and local governments. He said the House privacy working group, led by Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., should have draft legislation ready by year-end.