12 Days of Broadband: Brendan Carr, Deregulator or Speech Police?
The Federal Communications Commission's 39% problem
Editor's Note: Published on Dec. 1, 2025; republished on Dec. 26, 2025.
Brendan Carr has long cast himself as a small-government conservative, impatient with ownership caps and suspicious of legacy media regulation as a Federal Communications Commissioner.
12 Days of Broadband 2025 (click to open)
- On the First Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: One Carr driving the Federal Communications Commission.
- On the Second Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Two superpowers racing toward AI superintelligence dominance.
- On the Third Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Three branches of government (and some formerly independent agencies).
- On the Fourth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Four programs with Universal Service Funds.
- On the Fifth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 56 states and territories without digital equity grants.
- On the Sixth Day of Broadband, my true level sent to me: Less than 6 months for a broadband permit.
- On the Seventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Data center-powered electricity bills up 70 percent.
- On the Eighth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: 800 megahertz of spectrum to sell at auction.
- On the Ninth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: $9 billion + 12 billion (or $21 billion) in BEAD remaining funds.
- On the Tenth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Not even $10/month for an affordable connectivity program.
- On the Eleventh Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: Through BEAD and broadband, 110 million locations served.
- On the Twelfth Day of Broadband, my true love sent to me: More than 1200 megahertz of spectrum for unlicensed wireless.
Now, as Donald Trump’s man at the once-theoretically-independent agency, he is also the point person for a White House that wants the agency to punish “fake news” and keep “radical left” broadcasters from getting bigger.
Those two identities collide over the agency’s 39 percent national TV audience cap for broadcast ownership.
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