ajit park ai is -- pai is sort of saying he does disagree.so her thinking aligns much more with the chairman's office which is sort of back and forth. they came up, it was just going back and forth, we do think, we don't -- we're not sure, we found a third way. it's unclear, and i think that's been strategic, actually. they don't want to do something that controversial at this point. >> i think too, though, the one thing you would say about jessica, she's not a waffler. she definitely has very strong points of view on things, and can on net neutrality she's been -- even when she was a staffer for commissioner copps, i remember when they were doing the at&t/bell south merger, she was really arguing to get a condition imposed o thanker her -- imposed on that merger. this is one that i think she would at least explore. final question.

. >> eni schatz and ajit pai they both worked in the senate, is that significant cracks skidded one of the things is different about ajit is hughes a brightly broad resonate. the work for german rockefeller for reviews and before that spent years of the fcc in various roles. ajit has a much bigger resume and that he worked more places and he's been in the litigation the past couple of years because he couldn't do anything more but he was also a deputy general counsel, both republican and a democrat and had worked in a couple of different committees over on the hill so he brings a broad experience and he had more intellectual property experience than others said it will be an interesting mix but cecilia is right they are very young in their early 40's and will be interesting to see how the internet. islamic the nomination hearings were held last november. why has it been so long? remind us why we are here in may talking about there being a process. >> gup nominees, bachelet and an issue that didn't even involve them specifically. it was an investigation that another senator, senator chu

ajit pai does disagree. her thinking is much more with the chairman office, which is back and forth. we do think, we don't need, we're not sure, we found a third way -- it is unclear paired i think that has been strategic, actually. they do not want to do something that controversial at this point. >> the one thing you would say about jessica is she is not a wallflower. she definitely has strong points of view appeared on it neutrality, even when she was a staffer, and there were doing the at&t bellsouth merger, she was one of the people behind the scenes arguing for net neutrality imposed on that merger could i think this is where she would be very strong -- on the merger. i think this is where she would be very strong. >> with five commissioners now on board again, how will this change the dynamic within the commission itself. they have had a small group of three. now they will add two more staff, more opinions, more meetings. will this slowdown the process? >> i think you'll just see a continuation of thi

we interviewed the fcc commissioner, ajit pai. he was praising some brand-new qualcomm technology.. that is really exciting for routers and other types of devices. it is 1.3 gigabytes. it is really fast wi-fi connectivity. really, when you think about downloading videos or surfing the web, you can do so much more, so much faster. >> this was developed by qualcomm? >> yes. >> when will it be on the market? >> those devices will be out later this year. >> what else is qualcomm exhibiting this year at ces? >> we talk about snapdragon 800. it is a processor with a powerful graphics assess her -- processor. along with lte. another connectivity solution, as well as multimedia. 7 dot 1 audio. that is the theater behind us. great theater experience for you. you can watch stuff off of your smart phone and do a lot of great rings. -- things. >> what does qualcomm do overall? >> public does a variety of technology. -- qualcomm does a variety of technologies. wi-fi and interactivity. snapdragon processor. we do a lot of things with qualcomm intel. we have another application for reality. we do

pleased to welcome to "the communicators" for the first time one of the newest fcc commissioners, ajit pai, one of the republicans on the commission. thanks for being with us on "the communicators." >> guest: thanks very much for having me. >> host: in july you spoke at carnegie mellon, and you talked a little bit about the regulatory process, the slowness of the process and the fcc's -- the way the fcc does business. i want to get your further thoughts on that and also get you to reflect on your first few months on the federal communications commission. >> guest: well, thank you for the question, and thanks again for having me. it's a privilege to be on the show. at carnegie mellon, one of the things i tried to identify was ways that the fcc could establish a regulatory framework that would allow the ict or information and communications technology sector, to really be a leader in job creation and economic growth. it historically has been one of the most dynamic parts of the economy, but in recent years if you look at the statistics from the labor department, job growth and economic growt

our guest is the senior republican from the federal trade condition is ajit pai. and monty taylor is here. commissioner pai, this is the longest we have gone on the "the communicators" without using the word spectrum. what is your current thinking and how do you see the schedule? is the fcc on time when it comes to the spectrum auctions? >> the demand is increasing and it is more critical for the fcc to bring more spectrum in the commercial marketplace. we have not had a major spectrum auction since 2008 but i am happy to say we are taking the first step with 10 megahertz of option. and we are looking at the auction which television broadcasts would purchase spectrums. and there are host of other options. i don't want to let it go what mentions there is a 5 giga hirtz and they will have up to 500 available for super wi-fi. and i have seen it in person. one giga of data per second is a real possibility. the technical standard exist and devices are being shipped that incorporate radios and transmit and receive those giga hirtz. >> the h-block, not many par participan

. >> host: prior to being appointed to the federal communications commission, ajit pai served as deputy counsel at the fcc. he also worked at verizon. he is a graduate of harvard and law degree from the university of chicago. eliza krigman of "politico," next question. >> yes, a very impressive background for this position. since you have worked as verizon communications, have you been lobbied by any of the people that you used to work with? >> guest: i have not, no. >> okay. on that same topic, i'd like to ask is the fcc supposed to operate in the public interest, but the reality of the matter is most of the people who comment on the public record are the well-heeled lobbyists, and that's who the commission also spends a lot of time meeting with. what are you going to do personally to make sure your opinion's informed by the average consumer? >> guest: at my confirmation hearing in november of last year, i stated i would hold no favor for or prejudice against any particular company, person or segment of the industry. and i would like to think that in the four-and-a-half months that i'v

ajit pai: what is happening is not a conversation, it is a dictation. wonderlandlice in paradigm of sentence and then verdict afterward. it goes through the formality of having this process in which it receives public input, but the decision has already been made. they are not open to different points of view. that is one of races of people have been speaking out. and the writing was on the wall when our downloadable security advisory meeting said there are distinct approaches here. the other proposal that the commission ultimately adopted. if these were genuine conversations, they would say here are proposals, the american public wants to tell us what they think. so they said this is our proposal, and here are a couple of paragraphs. it will be terrible for america, but let us know what you think anyway. that is not an open and fair debate. mignon clyburn: it allows the opportunity for people to weigh in. isuess what i am saying here you have, if you do not agree with the original premise, you have an opportunity to weigh in. i think it is a healthy wa

is theguest this week senior republican on the federal communications commission, ajit pai. we also have the associate editor of communications daily. this is the longest we have gone without using the word spectrum. what is your current thinking and how do you see the schedule? is the fcc on time when it comes to the spectrum option? question the intent of consumer demand has increased since i became a commissioner. more critical for the fcc to bring more spectrum. it is unfortunate we have not had a major spectrum option since the bush administration in 2008, i am happy to say we are taking the initial first step with the spectrum which will raise money. we are looking at the broadcast and set of options in the longer-term by which television broadcasters would voluntarily relinquish some spectrum. there is a host of other spectrum options when it comes to license by terms. -- spectrums. there is a tremendous opportunity and what is known as the five gigahertz band. this is an area where the commission has teed up the possibility of having up to 195 megahertz available for

our guest this week is the senior republican on the federal communications commission, ajit pai. joining us in our conversation is monty today low, associate editor at "communications daily." this is probably the longest we've gone on "the communicators" without using the word spectrum. [laughter] what's your current thinking, and how do you see the schedule -- is the fcc on time when it comes to the spectrum auctions? >> guest: well, i think that without question the intensity of consumer demand has only increased since i've become a commissioner, certainly over the last several years, so it becomes more critical to bring more spectrum into the commercial marketplace. it is unfortunate that we've not had major spectrum auction since the bush administration in 2008, but i'm happy to say that we are taking initial first step with the auction of ten megahertz of spectrum later this month, what's known as the h block auction that will raise over $1.5 billion it is hoped. and in the longer term, we're looking at broadcast auction which would be purchased by wireless carriers, and the

. >> host: ajit pai grew up in parsons, kansas. he attended harvard and the university of chicago law school. he worked on capitol hill for the senate judiciary committee as well as worked at the fcc prior to becoming a commissioner in 2012. all right. is the commission set up, in your view, for the 21st century? is it structured correctly? >> guest: that's a really good question. certainly in terms of process, i think the answer is, no. i think that we have a lot of cumbersome rules and regulations that operate -- that govern our operation that need to be modernized, and i commend congress in particular for looking at ways of streamlining that. the consolidated reporting act, process reform act found bipartisan support in the house, for example, would help us become a more modern agency. there are also things i think we need to do, and we don't require congressional authorization to do that have been languishing. almost three years ago now, for example, i proposed the creation of an fcc dash boar, a single -- dashboard, a single w

so we're going to move forward, and we'll see what happens. >> host: ajit pai last time he was on this program suggested that the vote be delayed. >> guest: the chairman obviously, disagrees. again, it's been over a year. the internet has nothing protecting it to insure that it's open to insure that users are protected from gatekeeping functions, to insure that edge providers are protected from gatekeepers. we need to move forward and we need to lock this down and be done with this debate that we've been having for 15 years. >> host: gigi sohn, if you put on your public knowledge hat one more time -- >> guest: oh, god. [laughter] >> host: knowing what you know about this proposal how would you feel about it as the president and founder of public knowledge? >> guest: well, i think it's a victory for the american people, okay? i no longer work for public knowledge, so i'm not going to put that hat on. i have a wonderful successor, a guy named gene but i think he is celebrating. i think the public interest groups are celebrating and i think the four million people who have weighed in -- a

and both ajit pai and mignon clyburn spoke about the the f.t.c. chairman pai: two years ago, the title 2 order stripped the f.t.c. of jurisdiction over broadband providers but today we nation's premier consumer protection cop back on the beat. again havewill once the authority to take action against internet service anyider that engage in competitive, unfair or deceptive acts. chairman maureen o'hausen recently said, the to protectility consumers and promote competition in the broadband is not new. we have a long established role in preserving the values consumers care about online. or as president obama's first f.t.c. chairman put it restorey, the plan to f.t.c. jurisdiction is good for consumers, the sky isn't falling, consumers will remain protected, and the internet will continue to thrive. so let's be clear. following today's vote, americans will still be able to access the websites they want to visit. they'll still be able to enjoy services they want to enjoy. there will still be cops on the beat guarding a free and open internet. this is the

much as ajit pai and michael reilly will. how did your life change on the commission? >> guest: well, i became chairman, so my life changed quite a bit. [laughter] i became responsible for a lot of other things other than that. i think it changed just because of the standpoint that you're kind of responsible for setting the agenda and what items are going to be important. i felt a deep responsibility to improve the relationship between chairman and commissioners because i'd watched several commissioners come in and, basically, blow the relationship not just with members of the other party and the chairmans, but with members of their own party. be and i said, you know, we can do better than that, and we did that thanks to the cooperation of rob and jonathan. and that's why we made some progress. and we really need to get back to that. we need to do something about the closed meeting rule, getting the commissioners together and really looking at it as an independent agency. and, you know, people complaining that the president says one thing that the fcc should do, but he

but i think our chairman ajit pai, has long had a principled position that he's reflected as chairman of the fcc. and yet he has taken a lot of heat for it too but we were unable to deal with it in congress to settle the issue. it does fall with the fcc i suspect it will ping-pong back and forth for the right policy until evidence is in and proven to be a problem congress can address it, come up with constitutional majorities. cspan: before we get any further into issues. bring paul kirby of telecommunications reports into this conversation. >> thank you. one position you do have a position on as a group of repacking tvizations after after the auction earlier this year. 1000 stations are repacked. fcc set a 39 month time frame. congress earmarked $1.7 billion but that is not enough money. >> yes. >> give the concerns at this point or do you hope congress comes up with the money sooner rather than later? some folks say fcc has more money now and congress should come forward with the little ways down the time frame? >> sooner than better, congress in my opinion is not able to do things

it's ajit pai. >> hi. i'm ajit pai, chairman of the fcc. recently there's been quite a bit of conversation about my plan to restore internet freedom. here's just a few of the thinks you'll still be able to do on the internet after these obama era regulation are repealed. you can still cram your food. you can still post the photos of cute animals, like puppies. you can still shop for all your christmas presents online. yes, those eclipse glasses are so cheap. you can still binge watch your favorite shows. you can still say part of your favorite phantom. you can still drive the right into the ground. and everything else you ever did on the internet, like everything. all of it. all of it. >> host: brian fung, that was a very provocative -- >> guest: that was a very provocative video and it just highlights how chairman pai is often thought to some of the internet's best cultural aspects to try and push his policy agenda forward. chairman pai speeches are often replete with pop culture references, and he's known for using an enormous rhesus cup

chair ajit pai is debating giving more control over how broadband is distributed. live coverage thursday at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span. the house back for legislative business at 4:30 eastern with work on five measures, include one to increase protection for community religious centers. later in the week, legislation requiring the treasury secretary to report to congress on assets held by top iranian leaders. in the senate, votes on three more federal trump appeals court ominees. later in the week they'll consider nominees for the fifth circuit. you can watch live coverage of the house here on c-span and the senate on c-span2. next, today's white house briefing from less than an hour ago with press secretary sarah sanders.

. >> host: chairman wheeler, your colleague, ajit pai, was recently on this program, and i want to play just a little bit of videotape and get you to respond to what he had to say. >> guest: it is unfortunate there's been a partisan divide at the commission, and it's especially dispiriting over the past 14 months that we've seen such partisan rancor, unprecedented in scope. we've seen more party line votes than we had in the previous 43 years. that's unfortunate because these issues are not typically politicized. >> host: and i know he said this on the dais with you there. >> guest: right. so, i mean, the reality is that there are intelligent, dedicated, strong-willed individuals, five of us, and people have their own opinions. but the way that the system has been set up is, is there a majority that comes together to make a decision. and, you know, the answer is there has been. >> host: do you think that you should be allowed to meet with two other commissioners in private to have a discussion? >> guest: ing you know, it's a really interesting situation that we have. just to clarify tha

. >> host: when we've talked to some of your colleagues, robert mcdowell and ajit pai, they both mention that the government has a lot of the spectrum that is being unused and talked about more sharing. >> guest: yes. >> host: could you address those issues as well? >> guest: well, one of the things that we say internally, and we say it jokingly, but we're very serious, they're serious about it. this is an all-of the above type strategy. meaning when we talk about incentive auctions that we're talking about, in terms of the engagement, i mentioned 2014 for a reason. it's going to take a while for us, um, to put all of the rules of the road together, to get that in gear for, um, for that engagement to take place. so in the meantime, what do we do to address some of the critical, um, needs that we have by way of in this instance what's driving here, and that's, you know, mobile engagement. um, every other person we know has a tablet. um, most people we know, you know, they have smartphones. that uses more energies, you know, in terms of more energy than our standard, you know, our legacy,

then, fcc commissioner ajit pai talks about unlocking codes in mobile devices to allow consumers to use their phones with different carriers. after that, a couple of interviews from the recent "wall street journal" chief financial officers' network conference featuring marriott international ceo arne sorenson followed by house ways and means committee ranking member sander levin. >>> remarks now from critics of the nsa data collection programs. they recently spoke at an event hosted by the congressional internet caucus advisory committee. speakers include internet attorneys and representatives with the aclu and cato institute. this is a little over an hour. [inaudible conversations] >> like to have your attention, please. welcome to all of you who are here today, and welcome to those who are viewing this program through c-span to today's program on privacy, the nsa and your con stitch wents' -- cop stitch went's phone and internet records and primer on the history. my name is roger cochetti, and on behalf of the internet caucus advisory committee, welcome to today's discussion. let me t

the commission is at full strength with the confirmation of ajit pai and jessica rosenworcel. everyone is waiting to see what chairman julius genachowski chooses to do. there was widespread belief he would be leaving office. however, those plans reportedly have been placed on hold. no one really knows what the chairman is choosing to do. it looks like he may stay. i think it's fair to say his legacy is very uncertain at this point. net neutrality was really supposed to be chairman genachowski's legacy, i think, when he came in. it has passed, but many of its allies have either abandoned the commission in some fashion or are arguing that they didn't go far enough in the rules that they implemented. and also those rules are on shaky legal ground. so as eliza said, the betting odds that they will not stand up to the challenge by the same court that threw out their previous rules. reclassification is still an option. i would not be surprised if the rules were struck down if the fcc under genachowski chose to reclassify still. but regardless, i think chairman genachowski, what he c

. >> host: ajit pai, do you agree what your colleague just said? >> guest: i would take a somewhat different view. this example is, i think, parodyingmatic of the crossroads the fccs has found itself in. on one hand, you can take a forward-looking view of where the marketplace is going, try to encourage technological innovation that's in the benefit of consumers, or you can look at the snapshot of the marketplace that is increasingly yellowing with ages and try to double down on yesterday's paradigm. and set-top pox proceeding is a classic example of that. take the word of literally over a hundred members of the united states house of representatives. republicans and democrats who have said across a variety of different issues whether it's copyright protection or other issues that the fcc's proposal is a solution that won't work in search of a problem that simply is working it out in the marketplace. and why the fcc would choose with all the other issues on its plate, for example, broadband deployment across rural america, etc., to focus on somethi

there's a lot of rumblings that it'll probably be the senior commissioner, ajit pai. >> guest: i would be surprised, i haven't gotten any information otherwise, but i don't know that to be the case. but if it works out that way and they pick one, my colleague or myself, i will be happy to participate whatever role they ask of me to do. you know, the question has been posed in the pennsylvania would you be -- past would you be interested in being chairman, and i always say i focus on my current job and see where the chips fall where they may. >> yeah. what are you looking most forward to doing when you get into the majority, whatever your role is? >> guest: well, i think there's four things that the commission needs to look at, and i say this humbly because, as i said, president-elect trump gets to set a number of new structural changes to the commission. but i believe that there are some things that the commission can do that will be helpful going forward. one, we need to remove regulatory -- [inaudible] these are a number of things that have been on the books and make no longer sense

our guest this week is at quencher of the fcc, ajit pai. we have about ten minutes left in her interview. chairman pai, could you opine a little bit on the changes in media in the last four years. i know we talk about this on a regular basis and people are cutting the cord. are people watching broadcast media? are people subscribing to cable? there are streaming service is now. how would you describe this landscape? >> guest: i think from a consumer perspective the landscape is richer than ever in the sense that consumers have a choice not only of what kind of content to want to watch but also the platform on which they want to watch it. i know it's hard to remember because we live in the times we're in but living day-to-day, but i remember as a kid when in rural kansas my options were three broadcast channels, and if the satellite dish would be position in a in a certain waye a few channels over that network. and how different it is now. now my kids, for example, when this like to watch tv, they could be broadcast tv but more likely that mi

>> guest: ajit pai is a superb follow, a great man. he is, he is certainly understood and it is paying off now the irreplaceable importance of broadcasting in the firmament of telecommunications to the american people, and i had planned to ask him about things like ownership restrictions on broadcasting that certainly doesn't apply to social media platforms or other entrance in telecommuting, only broadcasting is kept intentionally small and sometimes we need scale to be able to compete. not sometimes, we do need scale to compete with these new entrants in communications. but there's lots of issues. we were going to talk about the repack of the spectrum, the spectrum repack after the sale of a whole bunch of our broadcast spectrum where people need to rescan the television sets. we are literally in the last phase of that. it's supposed to be over by the summer but phased-in, which is on the horizon. already chairman pai his head we are going to give you more flexibility if this virus gets in the way of deadlines. we will give you that f

want and are pushing as hard as they can for that notwithstanding my views or my colleagues' views, ajit pai, the other republican, if those views are side sidestepped, it's hard to find commonality. it is about how is the commission being run. >> you've complained a lot about how you will submit edits, and they don't get looked at for various orders and neighborhood coo of -- do you believe that that's a departure from past fccs? >> guest: well, i've actually put forward a good couple dozen process reform ideas, and not many of those have made it into the books as of yet. but i do think that i do put on the table, i read every item that's put before the commission that either my name's going to out on, that i know about. there are a number of things that go out the door from the bureaus that i don't know about or i don't have an opportunity to vote on. but besides that, i do read everything, and i do try to provide constructive ideas and edits on how to make an item better that would garner my support. many times recently they haven't been adopted or even considered. i think that's disappoi

work to do to get that done, but the steps that are being taken today by the administration, by ajit pai at the federal communications commission, by an increasing community of folks that realize that we need to move forward not backward in the, towards the internet future is a positive sign. and we're going to try to work hard to advance those efforts. >> host: when you look at that $76 billion of investment, where does that money go? does it go to wires to the house? other places? >> guest: it goes to many different parts of the broadband network that we increasingly rely on. it goes to investing in upgrading and maintaining the wireline infrastructure that connects our nation to the wireless infrastructure that relies on the fiber that composes our wireline world, it goes to managing these vast networks, it goes to insuring that we actually have the deployment capacity, the work teams, the folks that are climbing the poles, that are digging the trenches, that are doing the hard work every day of attaching, connecting our nation to this indispensable infrastructure which is called broa

our guest this week is the outgoing chair of the fcc, ajit pai.e have about 10 minutes left in our interview. can you opine a little bit on the changes in media in the last four years? i know we talk about this on a regular basis and people are cutting the cord. are people watching broadcast media, subscribing to cable? there are streaming services now. how would you describe this landscape? chairman pai: i think from a consumer perspective, the landscape is richer than ever, in the sense that consumers have a choice not only in the kind of content they want to watch, but also the platform in which they want to watch it. it's hard to remember because of the times we live in, but i remember as a kid when in rural kansas my options were three broadcast channels. if the satellite dish was positioned in a certain way, maybe a few channels over that network. how different it is now. now, my kids, for example, when they say we want to watch tv, they could mean broadcast tv. but more likely they might mean, , hey, dad, can you put up a show on netflix? "

. >> host: ajit pai is chairman of the federal communications commission and he is our guest this week on "the communicators." chairman pai, it's a been about two years since we've seen you, to your since the republicans have had the majority over at the sec. what have you accomplished? >> guest: it's been pretty quiet actually. it's great to see it again after some time. we've been pretty active addressing our top priority which is closing the digital divide and a number of other priorities, advancing public safety, attacking robocalls, it's been a very active commission and the like to think of a productive one for the american people. >> host: what is on the agenda, the docket for the remaining two years? >> guest: will continue excluding argent for some form of closing the digital divide and that includes a number of different components. number one, for example, making sure we get more broadband internet access to all parts of the country. we finished the wireline auction called connect america fund which will devote $1.5 billion to connect about 713,000 713,0s and small businesse

pai, ajit pai of the fcc took off last december. he tried to restore the legal structure that was in place before february of 2015 which allowed the internet to just blossom and explode beautifully to give us the internet we have today. there may very well be 50 votes in the senate. the cra's an interesting key finish right now there appear to be 50 votes to 49 for this to go through in the senate. probably not so much of a chance to go through the house and then probably less of a chance for the president to sign it. >> guest: let me just remind rob that chairman pai and his fcc repealed the 2015 rules. yes, they undid title ii as well, although i will say the rules are still on the books. people should not forget that. but he repealed the rules and only left in place a weaker transparency rule by which the federal trade commission is now supposed to look and see whether internet service providers abide by their promises. and they're not going to -- >> guest: it was more than that. >> guest: not really, but in any event -- [laughte

. >> we recently had the current chair of the f.c.c., ajit pai on this program. we asked him the question. i want you to hear the question his answer and get your response. >> philosophically as we get more and more commingled with networks and cable companies and google facebook, et cetera et cetera, at what point is the f.c.c. -- pardon me -- but irrelevant to our media world? >> so this is one of the things that i've consistently said. for my first days on the commission back in 2012, we need to get the denominator right. what i mean by that is figuring out the full scope of competition in every one of these marketplaces. i think if you were to tell the average person under 25 or 30 for example, yes, the f.c.c. considers the market marketplace for information to be solely newspapers, broadcast tv stations, broadcast radio stations, they would look at you as if, have you not heard of this thing called the internet? technically speaking our rules don't take into account some of the effects of the internet. that's part of the reason why we want to make sure we ha

. >> ajit pai is our guest this week on "the communicators." chairman pai, it's been about two years since we have seen you, two years since the republicans have had the majority over at the fcc. what have you accomplished? >> it's been pretty quiet, actually. haven't really done a lot. it's great to see you again after some time. we have been pretty active addressing our top priority which is closing the digital divide and a number of other priorities as well, advancing public safety, attacking robo calls. generally speaking it's been a very active commission and i would like to think a very productive one for the american people. >> what's on the agenda? what's on the docket for the remaining two years at least? >> so we are going to continue executing on our agenda first and foremost, closing the digital divide. that includes in itself a number of different components, number one, for example, making sure we get more broad band internet access to all parts of the country. we recently finished a wire line auction of the connect america fund w

elephant in the room we haven't mentioned your order session support of the current fcc chairman ajit pai when he moved to the world bank in the net neutrality role during the obama federal communications commission. the old net neutrality rules there are court challenges. why did you take that stand and why would your adachi holed up point of view? >> guest: the 4g rollout was something that we thought would be great for consumers and better for consumers and industry because we sell the average revenue per user pretty much stay flat. we actually didn't see any more revenue while the amount of data consumers are getting is increased dramatically by thousands of percentage points. so consumers are getting a really good deal. you're getting a lot more bandwidth with the inflation meant a judgment -- inflation adjustment the same you are paying for voice but with respect to billions to build this network with help the ability to necessary cover those costs. the 5g network is estimated between two and 25 to two and $75 billion to build and industry that is building it is basically given unli

peter: i was going to ask what your relationship was like with chairman ajit pai. christopher: i don't have a relationship. howard: have you tried? christopher: i have not personally, but people i've worked with may have tried. peter: what about democratic congress? do they hear your message and duly have payroll they could play in a potential merger? christopher: i think they did hear our message. i think at the hearing last week, not only did the democrats hear the message, but republicans. a cell phone is neither a democrat or a republican cell phone. and what does merger will do is raise prices. jobs.l destroy and people will not have -- for instance, 46 million rural americans will not have, according to numbers, will not have the ability to get 5g service after this murder. how much affect of this congress have on the merging policy? christopher: that remains to be seen, i guess. whether they can convince the fcc to turn down this merger, i don't know. howard: the wireless component of at&t has a record on unionization. what companies are you happiest with an

ajit pai what are your thoughts about some of the states adopting that petrology regulations on their own, specifically california. >> incredibly troubled by that action. it interferes with something that is interstate in nature. we have a commerce clause for a particular reason and no one can argue the internet does not interstate. it doesn't stop political boundaries that is problematic for a provider trying to serve nationwide are regional. we can't have that going forward. i was insistent the head and we did adopt included strong preemption language unimagined the commission to be engaged in a preempting such a committee that they violate the direction was gone. >> host: that's when paul kirby and torah discussion here in "the communicators." senior editor at telecommunications report. >> guest: thank you. you often say you don't want to tell members what to do, but do you think congress will finally do something not this year, but at some point do something to avoid when the white house changes the party and the fcc changes the rules change. >> i can't guarantee anything but i ce

. >> under ajit pai, they will back net neutrality rules very early into the trump administration, rolled back a lot of obama era regulations that were put in place to ensure what obama officials thought were a more level playing field for telecom companies, things they put in place to lower prices for consumers and make sure big corporations were not taking advantage. so i was at the beginning of the trump administration the fcc was pretty active, and then they slow down a bit. you haven't heard a ton from the fcc lately. my sense is commissioner pai or chairman pai, sorry, is trying to write it out and see if the rest of the administration goes. what do you think, emily? >> yes, yes, i would agree with. i think that the net neutrality debate was so high-stakes and high drama, and then now we're just sort of waiting to hear from the results from the court case that's ongoing in d.c. on net neutrality. they been focusing on things like rock band mapping and some things, there's some overlap at least between the commissioners. >> host: and there's a potential new merger coming online, cbs

your organization supported the current fcc chairman, ajit pai, when he moved to move back the net neutrality rule put in place during the obama administration fcc. so the old all rule is out, at least for now. there are court challenges. why did you take that stance? why would your industry hold that point of view? >> guest: well, let me step back and look at the rollout of 4g. i mean, the 4g rollout was something we thought would be great for consumers and industry. it turned out to be even better for consumers than industry because we saw the average revenue per user pretty much stay flat. so we actually didn't see any more revenue while the amount of data that consumers are getting has increased dramatically, by thousands of percentage points. so the consumers are getting a really good deal, which we think is wonderful. you're getting a lot more bandwidth for the same money, the same you were paying when you just had voice. yet we spent $250 billion to build this network without the ability necessarily to recover those costs. so we're now looking at a 5g network that, again, is being esti

. >> under ajit pai, they rolled back net neutrality rules very early in the trump administration, rolled back a lot of obama era regulations that were put in place to ensure what obama officials thought was a more level playing field for telecom companies, things that they put in place to lower prices for consumers and making sure big corporations weren't taking advantage. i would say at the beginning of the trump administration, the thenas pretty active, and they slow down a bit. you haven't heard a ton from the fcc lately. my sense is chairman pai is trying to ride it out and see how the rest of the administration goes. what do you think, emily? ms. birnbaum: yes, i would agree with that. i think the net neutrality debate was so high-stakes and high drama, and now we are just sort of waiting to hear the results from the court case d.c. on net neutrality. they have been focusing on things like broadband mapping and some things where there is least, betweent the commissioners, the republicans and democrats. host: and there is a potential new merger coming online, cbs and viacom, correct?

. >> ajit pai as the outgoing chairman of the federal communications commission. thank you for your time. emily birnbaum, thank you as well. emily: thank you. ajit: thanks so much, folks. emily: thank you. >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies

what did you plan -- ajit pai, the chairman of the fcc. what did you plan to ask him? superb fellow and you certainly understood -- misunderstood. it is paying off now, the airplay civil importance of broadcasting in the firmament of telik medications for the american people -- the firmament of telecommunications. thingsto ask him about like ownership restrictions on broadcasting, which does not apply to social media or other entrance. only broadcasting is kept intentionally small. and sometimes we need scale to compete with new entrants in communications. but there a lot of issues. we were going to talk about the repack of the spectrum. the spectrum repack after the sale of a whole bunch of our broadcast spectrum. where people need to rescan their television sets. we are literally in the last phase of that. it is supposed be over by this summer. on the0, which is , chairman paidy has said we will give you more flex ability if this virus gets in a way of deadlines. they have in real help and a understanding as we have transitioned into this new world of reduced spectru

ajit pipe. we have about ten minutes left in our interview. chairman paicould you opine a little bit on the changes in media and the last four years and i know we talk about this on a regular basis and people are cutting the cord and are people watching broadcast media or our people subscribing to cable and they are streaming services now so how would you describe this landscape? >> guest: thread comes boomer perspective it's richer and that they have a choice not only of what kind of content they want to watch but also the platform on which they want to watch it and i know it's hard to remember because we live in these times that we are in but living day to day as a kid when in rural kansas my options were three broadcast channels and if the satellite dish would be positioned in a certain way you would be a few channels over that network and how different it is now and my kids when they say we want to watch tv they could mean broadcast tv but more likely they might mean dad, could you put a show on netflix which they love at the moment on her ipad. becaus

peter: ajit pai is chairman of the federal communications commission and he's our guest this week on the communicators. it's been about two years since we've seen you. two years since the republicans have had the majority over the fcc. what have you accomplished? ajit: it's been pretty quiet, actually. first and foremost, it's great to see you after some time. we've been pretty active in closing the digital divide and a number of priorities as well, advancing public safety. attacking robo calls. generally i think it's been a very active commission. peter: what's on the docket? ajit: we're going to continue executing on closing the digital divide. that includes a number of different components. number one, for example, making sure we get more broadband to all parts of the country. we recently finished a wireline auction that will devote $1.5 billion to connect 713,000 homes and small businesses. we are pursuing, as well, some rate of return forms that we got across the line thursday, which will substantially increase the amount of rural broadband out there. on the wireless side, we wi

. >> chris, we will begin with you, last week, ajit pai questioned whether or not there should be media ownership rules at all, given the landscape of the media marketplace. is this an issue that may come up in the fcc or congress? chris, emily, and leah. >> i feel in terms of media, the more likely thing congress will move on, especially because senator cantwell,, is figurin out rules how social media platforms and news companies should interact, or we should have some sort of model like australia, where we pay what we use, or a should be advertising budgets given the state of media, where we have lost tens of thousands of jobs this year. >> i don't think most democrats would agree with what he was saying about media ownership rules. i think the fcc is going to have to deal with this. jeffrey starks has been focused on diversity in media ownership. i think that is the route we will see over the next couple of years. >> the only thing i would note is next week, the supreme court is set to hear that case. depending on how the supreme court decides the case, it could come up in congress.

ajit pai what is the government theory he reject it do you think is valid? >> in a vertical merger, it is interesting because we think about horizontal mergers which eliminate head-to-head rivals. it pairs up and put the distributions. in this case it is. not content with distribution, video distribution. vertical mergers, even though they put together complementary set of the level they call horizontal effects in market. in this case, the government's concern was because of at&t's market power combined with time warner, the company would have enhanced incentives after the merger to make it difficult for rival distributors, whether cable distributors for direct broadcast satellite distributors to get time warner content and i would make it more difficult to compete and potentially raise prices to consumers. it would hamper or hamstring competition. the judge reject the god on the basis of the government theory of harm that the company would have more bargaining leverage with their rival distributors after the merger and his findings on reject them first-hand