FCC Announces Membership of BDAC

Pete CodellaBroadband

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has appointed members to serve on the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC).  Elizabeth Pierce, Chief Executive Officer of Quintillion Subsea Operations, LLC, and Quintillion Networks, LLC (Quintillion), to serve as Chair of the BDAC, and Kelleigh Cole, Director of the Utah Broadband Outreach Center in the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, to serve as Vice Chair. Former Utah Congressman Jim Matheson has also been appointed to serve on the committee.

The BDAC will hold its first meeting on Friday, April 21, 2017, beginning at 10:00 am, in the Commission Meeting Room at FCC Headquarters, located at 445 12th Street, SW, Room TW-C305, Washington, DC 20554.  Notice of this meeting will be published in the Federal Register. A full list of BDAC members is attached to this Public Notice.

In addition, the Chairman has identified five working groups that will assist the BDAC in carrying out its work:

  • Model Code for Municipalities—Douglas Dimitroff of the New York State Wireless Association will serve as Chair of this working group, and the Honorable Sam Liccardo, Mayor of San Jose, California, will serve as Vice Chair.
  • Model Code for States—Kelly McGriff of Southern Light will serve as Chair of this working group, and the Honorable Karen Charles Peterson, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable,for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners will serve as Vice Chair.
  • Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure—Ken Simon of Crown Castle will serve as Chair of this working group, and Brent Skorup of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University will serve as Vice Chair.
  • Removing State and Local Regulatory Barriers—Robert DeBroux of TDS Telecom will serve as Chair of this working group, and Kim Keenan of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council will serve as Vice Chair.
  • Streamlining Federal Siting—Jonathan Adelstein of the Wireless Infrastructure Association will serve as Chair of this working group, and Valerie Fast Horse of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe will serve as Vice Chair.

The selection of additional members for BDAC working groups remains in progress, and final selections will be announced at a later date.

The primary agenda of the BDAC’s first meeting will be to introduce members of the Committee, set out initial assignments, and provide more information about the working groups.  The BDAC will also begin discussing how to accelerate the deployment of broadband by reducing and/or removing regulatory barriers to infrastructure investment.

The BDAC meeting is open to the public.  The FCC will accommodate as many attendees as possible; however, admittance will be limited to seating availability.  The Commission will also provide audio and/or video coverage of the meeting over the Internet from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live.  Open captioning will be provided for this event.  Other reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request.  Requests for such accommodations should be submitted via e-mail to fcc504@fcc.gov or by calling the Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (202) 418-0432 (TTY).  Such requests should include a detailed description of the accommodation needed.  In addition, please include a way for the FCC to contact the requester if more information is needed to fill the request.  Please allow at least five days’ advance notice for accommodation requests; last minute requests will be accepted, but may not be possible to accommodate.

Members of the public may submit comments to the BDAC in the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System, ECFS, at www.fcc.gov/ecfs. Comments to the BDAC should be filed in GN Docket No. 17-83.

More information about the BDAC is available at https://www.fcc.gov/broadband-deployment-advisory-committee. You may also contact Brian Hurley, Designated Federal Officer (DFO) of the BDAC, at brian.hurley@fcc.gov or 202-418-2220; or Paul D’Ari, Deputy DFO, at paul.dari@fcc.gov or 202-418-1550.