April 6, 2017 —
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has appointed 29 people to the newly created Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC), whose mission is to “break down regulatory barriers to broadband deployment.” The committee is made up of a wide spectrum of interests, including wireless carriers, tower owners, utility companies, cable providers, the internet, municipalities, and tribal organizations. Associations and universities will be represented, as well. The FCC chose the committee from 380 applications.
Initially, BDAC will have five working groups. Douglas Dimitroff of the New York State Wireless Association will serve as Chair of the group tasked with developing a model code for municipalities along with Sam Liccardo, mayor of San Jose, California, will serve as Vice Chair.
Jonathan Adelstein of the Wireless Infrastructure Association will serve as Chair of this working group that will study streamlining federal siting, along with Valerie Fast Horse of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, who will serve as Vice Chair.
The Competitive Access to Broadband Infrastructure working group will be chaired by ken Simon of Crown Castle, and Brent Skorup of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University will serve as Vice
The April 21 meeting will be held in the Commission meeting room at FCC Headquarters, 445 12th St. SW, Washington, DC at 10:00 am. The meeting is open to the public but admittance will be limited to seating availability. The Commission will livestream the meeting, with open captioning, through the FCC web site at www.fcc.gov/live.
Additional information about the BDAC is available online at https://www.fcc.gov/broadband-deployment-advisory-committee.