WIA CEO Patrick Halley Testifies at House Hearing on Expediting Permitting

WIA President and CEO Patrick Halley testified to the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology in a hearing titled, “Examining Solutions to Expedite Broadband Permitting.”

The hearing considered 29 bills on improving broadband and wireless permitting.  Halley’s testimony focused on WIA member priorities including codifying the FCC’s permitting orders, improving deployment on federal lands, and ensuring predictable, proportionate, and transparent permitting processes at all levels of government.

Overview

“Wireless carriers and their infrastructure partners are investing billions annually to close coverage gaps and add network capacity,” said Halley during his opening statement. “Mobile broadband speeds are up, prices are down, enterprises are increasingly turning to advanced private wireless connectivity, and it is fixed wireless broadband service that is leading the charge to close the digital divide in rural communities, with 13 million homes now connected by a 5G fixed wireless connection.”

“Our future success is not guaranteed. It depends on the adoption of smart infrastructure policies that unleash the full power of commercial spectrum,” continued Halley. “In the months and years ahead, we will collectively focus on the importance of winning the global AI race. And, while we continue reaping the benefits of 5G, we will chart a path forward to win the race to 6G.”

“We need a permitting framework that is predictable, proportionate, and transparent…The good news is that we are not starting from scratch,” said Halley added.  “Building off of important federal legislation, the FCC, in a highly bipartisan manner over the past decade, has adopted a series of rules consistent with these principles.  The legislation being considered by the Subcommittee today would codify those prior bipartisan actions and strengthen the rules of the road.  WIA urges Congress to create the certainty industry needs to build the networks of tomorrow. We appreciate the Subcommittee examining this important topic today.”

Read the full opening statement.

Watch

WIA CEO Patrick Halley responds to Chairman Hudson’s questions on the need to codify permitting reforms:

Quotables

WIA CEO Patrick Halley on affordability: “We should also focus on policies that ensure the $30 billion annually that the wireless industry invests is put to use as quickly and efficiently as possible and that is why permitting reform matters for affordability because it creates more competition, and more competition brings prices down.”

WIA CEO Patrick Halley on connectivity on federal lands: “When people go in to hike in certain parts of [a national] park, they give them a device that tracks where they are… it only works because there is cellular connectivity now. Instead of sending a helicopter when someone doesn’t come back from the hike, they know exactly where they are… it was an 11-year project. That’s unacceptable.”

WIA CEO Patrick Halley on spectrum: “Congress just put forward a [spectrum] pipeline which was a critically important step… that is going to be what leads us forward with the advancement of next-gen wireless networks, but that spectrum is not going to be put to use unless we have the infrastructure necessary for that spectrum to work.”

WIA CEO Patrick Halley on high-speed broadband: “Wireless connectivity is an essential element of every aspect of our economy…we are seeing broadband speeds on average of 150-200 Mbps… there is unlimited opportunity with networks that are delivering that kind of connectivity.”

Read Patrick’s full written testimony.

Watch the full hearing