FCC commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said they are postponing their planned field hearing on 5G and big data due to the "danger posed to travelers and field hearing attendees by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19."
The hearing had been scheduled for Monday, March 16, at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.
Starks said the cancellation was out of "an abundance of caution." But he also said they remain committed to holding a Detroit field hearing on the "novel civil rights" issues related to next-gen wireless. He said that becomes even more salient given the school and work site closures prompted by the virus, which disproportionately hurt vulnerable communities, which lack the remote alternatives for schooling and work that broadband connectivity provides.
