Speaker 1: Bloomberg audio studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Atas are increasingly shaping America's space race. The FCC decides
Speaker 2: who gets access to spectrum, approves satellite communications systems, and
Speaker 2: is now confronting the next frontier of the space economy,
Speaker 2: from orbital data centers to direct a device connectivity. Joining
Speaker 2: us now is FCC Chairman Brendan Karr to discuss the
Speaker 2: future of space communications, spectrum wireless policy before we turn
Speaker 2: to some of the major media issues facing the commission.
Speaker 2: Chem and Karr, thank you so much for being back
Speaker 2: on Bloomberg Tech. Should we start with maybe the more
Speaker 2: nascent area of SpaceX's business plan, which is orbital data center.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of value to the audience and
Speaker 2: to Americans is could you just explain how the FCC
Speaker 2: regulates orbital data center, why it has a role in
Speaker 2: oversight of how much material from a compute perspective will
Speaker 2: be in orbit above vith.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's your question.
Speaker 3: So at the SEC, and frankly all across the Trump administration,
Speaker 3: we're focused on two things. One, we want to make
Speaker 3: sure that consumers are right away feeling a difference in
Speaker 3: their life, and right now we're seeing that on the
Speaker 3: connectivity front, with speeds are up, prices are down, competition
Speaker 3: is intensifying. But the second piece coast your question, which
Speaker 3: is what are the fundamental regulatory changes we can do.
Speaker 3: They're going to pay off for consumers in the long run,
Speaker 3: and a lot of that has to do with the
Speaker 3: emerging space economy. To your point, we're seeing many, many
Speaker 3: more things go into orbit, whether it's all of this
Speaker 3: new generation of low worth orbit satellites or data centers,
Speaker 3: and so the SEC has a role to play one
Speaker 3: to make sure that everyone has the spectrum access they
Speaker 3: need in order to launch those but even things like
Speaker 3: orbital debris end up hanging off of a lot of
Speaker 3: the SEC's authorizations, and of course that's in conjunction with
Speaker 3: a broader group of regulators as well.
Speaker 2: When SpaceX or another player comes to the SCC seeking
Speaker 2: approval to deploy data centers in the form factor of
Speaker 2: a satellite into orbit, what are the considerations by which
Speaker 2: the SEC decides approval to block approval.
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing for us is we want to
Speaker 3: go much more quickly. You know, when I took over,
Speaker 3: we launched we called a Build America agenda, and a
Speaker 3: key piece of that is boosting America's space economy. And
Speaker 3: it used to be when we would get satellite applications
Speaker 3: that would come in, we would get you know, one
Speaker 3: or two or three a year, and we would do individualized,
Speaker 3: bespoke custom reviews. And what we're fundamentally changing is to
Speaker 3: an assembly line mindset. In fact, we're going to vote
Speaker 3: this month to change how we run our Space Bureau
Speaker 3: operations so to'll be objective criteria and if you hit those,
Speaker 3: you should expect much faster SEC approvals. In fact, we've
Speaker 3: cut the backlog of SEC approvals down by about half.
Speaker 3: We're moving much faster, and so we're giving people objective criteria.
Speaker 1: Hit that way, we can.
Speaker 3: End up improving you know, thousands or hundreds of thousands
Speaker 3: of applications, whereas before our processes would take us, you know,
Speaker 3: months or years to do a small handful of that.
Speaker 2: Away from orbital data sense, it's a big focus right
Speaker 2: now is the wireless networks in the context of space.
Speaker 2: Prior iterations of the SEC debated and looked at a
Speaker 2: fourth national wireless network with echo start right. And I
Speaker 2: think I'm right in saying, Chairman car you were critical
Speaker 2: of prior approaches to that future market. What has happened
Speaker 2: in the interim is that the SEC has handed some
Speaker 2: of those same licenses to SpaceX for starlink. What do
Speaker 2: we interpret it through that mechanism.
Speaker 3: Well, you're right, there was a mindset several years ago
Speaker 3: that said we have to have four separate standalone mobile
Speaker 3: wireless providers, let alone many other competitors that we have
Speaker 3: in the broader connectivity market. And people said that if
Speaker 3: you didn't have four, that prices would rise for consumers
Speaker 3: or speeds would slow down. And we haven't seen that
Speaker 3: obviously at all. We've completed the process of facilitating Dish
Speaker 3: Echo Star effectively exiting the market when it comes to
Speaker 3: mobile wireless, and consumers continue to benefit from a lot
Speaker 3: of price competitions. It's a great time for consumers, but
Speaker 3: it's also a really good time for companies because we're
Speaker 3: taking a lot of the costs, unnecessary costs out of
Speaker 3: the system, whether.
Speaker 1: It's permitting reform, whether it's.
Speaker 3: Allowing providers to retire these old copper networks that they
Speaker 3: had to subsidize in addition.
Speaker 1: To their new networks.
Speaker 3: And so this old view of having to have four
Speaker 3: individual mobile.
Speaker 1: Wireless providers or the sky would fall.
Speaker 3: We didn't buy, And obviously I think the evidence is
Speaker 3: coming in to show that this new theory is correct.
Speaker 2: You so sold Bloomberg last week that you have not
Speaker 2: had substantial conversations with SpaceX about their wireless ambitions. Substantial conversations,
Speaker 2: so chem cars, decisive conversations of any degree of substance
Speaker 2: with SpaceX about it.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think I've had any of much.
Speaker 3: I guess if I hadn't used a substantial maybe I would
Speaker 3: have avoided the follow one question. But I don't recall
Speaker 3: having any conversations with them about that. Look, I do
Speaker 3: think one of the things we're really excited about is
Speaker 3: this new emerging trend towards direct to sell technology. We
Speaker 3: can go straight from one of these low worth orbit
Speaker 3: satellites right to a handset. Obviously Starlink is doing that,
Speaker 3: we've facilitated them getting from Spectrum to do it. But
Speaker 3: also Amazon is looking to do it, ast space Mobile
Speaker 3: is looking to do it. So we want every single
Speaker 3: competitor in this sector to do well.
Speaker 1: Overall.
Speaker 2: You know, the SEC has done quite a large body
Speaker 2: of work to come up with some kind of regulatory
Speaker 2: framework I think right for direct to device. The accusation
Speaker 2: is of maybe favoritism towards SpaceX. You've also denied several
Speaker 2: of their requests. How are you going about building out
Speaker 2: that framework?
Speaker 1: Yeah, a couple of things. On direct to sell in particular.
Speaker 3: You know, our view was to have two or three
Speaker 3: facilities based providers in that segment so that the United
Speaker 3: States could lead the world in that. And that's something
Speaker 3: I think it's really important to President Trump is that
Speaker 3: US lead when it comes to these new emerging technologies,
Speaker 3: and we are in really good position to do that.
Speaker 3: There are always lots of stories about SEC taking action
Speaker 3: to benefit Starlink or SpaceX, and I get it, it
Speaker 3: probably results in more clicks, but the reality is that
Speaker 3: we are uplifting every single operator or business that's in
Speaker 3: the space economy, or taking actions that benefit Amazon, LEO,
Speaker 3: that benefit many smaller providers as well, so reflect Orbit Logos, Ast,
Speaker 3: Space Mobile of course SpaceX as well. So there's many
Speaker 3: many companies in this sector that are benefiting from our
Speaker 3: new mindset at the FCC, which is to go faster
Speaker 3: with these approvals. We don't want to get stuck naval gazing.
Speaker 2: We're live on Bloomberg Television and on Bloomberg Radio. This
Speaker 2: is Bloomberg Tech speaking with that CC Chairman Brendan Karr.
Speaker 2: There's also a technical consideration about spectrum, which is why
Speaker 2: is it important, Chairman, for a direct to device provider
Speaker 2: to have exclusive spectrum use in and amongst everything else
Speaker 2: that's happening up there.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a very efficient way to operate to have
Speaker 3: your own spectrums. We've been very open to spectrum deals.
Speaker 3: On the one hand, we've had about one hundred and
Speaker 3: thirty billion dollars worth of deal flow go through the
Speaker 3: FCC this Trump administration, not just mobile wireless, but across
Speaker 3: the board, and we're moving hard on spectrum as well,
Speaker 3: and not just direct to sell. We're voting this month
Speaker 3: to create one hundred and sixty megahertz of new spectrum
Speaker 3: for midband offerings and what's called the C band, and
Speaker 3: it's effectively going to create what we're referring to as
Speaker 3: a super band of four hundred and forty megahertz wide
Speaker 3: channel for midband spectrum for five G for six G.
Speaker 1: But you're right on the satellite side as well.
Speaker 3: So SpaceX has access to I think it's sixty five
Speaker 3: megahertz of spectrum that they can use for direct to
Speaker 3: sell Amazon just now that they are looking to purchase
Speaker 3: Global Star, which also has spectrum that could be used
Speaker 3: for direct to sell technology. So you see a lot
Speaker 3: of the players in this space ast as well that
Speaker 3: are looking to obtain their own spectrum rights so they
Speaker 3: can stand alone and offer that service in a compliment
Speaker 3: to existing connectivity.
Speaker 1: Services Jem and Coard.
Speaker 2: Just before the show started, Bloomberg broke some news in
Speaker 2: a story that a group of about a dozen states
Speaker 2: is poised to sue to block the Paramounts Guidance Warner
Speaker 2: Brothers deal. I think they had been prior reporting that
Speaker 2: various attorneys across those states have been preparing for that. Anyway,
Speaker 2: I know that the FCC kind of has a nominal
Speaker 2: role to look at the foreign financing of such a deal,
Speaker 2: But I hope you appreciate to ask you about what
Speaker 2: the latest is there and your reaction to a stateswide
Speaker 2: antitrust suit.
Speaker 3: Well, it's hard to see a real legitimate anti trust action,
Speaker 3: but of course, you know, I leave it to the
Speaker 3: anti trust experts to weigh.
Speaker 1: In on this.
Speaker 3: I did think it was interesting that there was a
Speaker 3: statement at least attributed to the Californi Attorney General that
Speaker 3: said that they would not sue if Paramount agreed to
Speaker 3: spin off CNN. It's hard to conceive of a competition
Speaker 3: any trust theory that takes you all the way up
Speaker 3: to the point where owning or not owning CNN as
Speaker 3: part of that broader group is a legitimate line that anti.
Speaker 1: Trust or competition law would draw.
Speaker 3: For our part, we do have a piece of this
Speaker 3: with respect to some of the foreign investment, and we're
Speaker 3: running a standard process on that, and we haven't made
Speaker 3: a final decision there yet.
Speaker 2: In recent interviews, you've also been asked, of course, about Disney,
Speaker 2: and you've said that you've not made a decision on
Speaker 2: whether to pool Disney's broadcast licenses over various diversity and
Speaker 2: inclusion practices. Again, remind us of the SEC's remit in
Speaker 2: that area, But what it would take for you to
Speaker 2: look at a potential action.
Speaker 1: With respect to Disney in particular.
Speaker 3: The sc has three proceedings that are going on, or
Speaker 3: sort of three buckets of issues, one starting all the
Speaker 3: way back in March of twenty twenty five, I wrote
Speaker 3: a letter to Disney leadership raising concerns about some of
Speaker 3: their practices, including what we call invidious forms of DEI discrimination,
Speaker 3: where there's potential evidence indicating that they may have been
Speaker 3: discriminating with effective pay or compensation or workplace opportunities based
Speaker 3: on race, gender, or protected characteristics.
Speaker 1: There's a role for the SCC there.
Speaker 3: We have particular rules on EEO policies and discrimination.
Speaker 1: So we've been looking into that for quite a while.
Speaker 3: In fact, we've been doing some letters of inquiry, our
Speaker 3: versions of subpoena, and frankly, the view was that Disney
Speaker 3: was being disingenuous in the way it was responding to
Speaker 3: the FCC's inquiries, and so we took the next step
Speaker 3: in our enforcement abilities, which was called in all of
Speaker 3: Disney's broadcast licenses for early renewals. See has now applied,
Speaker 3: and they have to demonstrate that they've been operating in
Speaker 3: the public interests. There have been petitions to deny the
Speaker 3: renewal of those Disney stations, and so the FC is
Speaker 3: looking at all of that very carefully right now, to
Speaker 3: your point, we've not made the final decision, but at
Speaker 3: this point Disney is demonstrating, attempting to demonstrate that it
Speaker 3: should get those licenses renewed and we'll ultimately see what
Speaker 3: the record shows.
Speaker 1: We have obviously a separate.
Speaker 3: Issue going on with Disney right now with respect to
Speaker 3: the View and their claims of the View being a
Speaker 3: bonifide news program. But we have the DEI, the license
Speaker 3: renewal in the View proceeding going. But more broadly, we're
Speaker 3: trying to hold all broadcasters accountable to their public interest standard.
Speaker 3: We have issued similar actions with respect to a number
Speaker 3: of other broadcasters. I think for years people took the
Speaker 3: view that broadcast TV should be treated just like cable
Speaker 3: or a podcast or a newspaper. But that's not what
Speaker 3: the Communications Act in Congress said, and so we want
Speaker 3: to make sure that all broadcasters are in fact living
Speaker 3: up to their public interest obligations.
Speaker 2: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr joining us from our DC studio.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Indeed,