**Closing Remarks of FCC Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy**

**Global Symposium for Regulators**

**Geneva, Switzerland**

**December 10, 2004**

Over the past five years, we have had the opportunity to gather together
at the Global Symposium for Regulators to exchange opinions and
viewpoints on the most pressing regulatory issues of the day. This
meeting is unique. There is no other event where we can engage in a
dialogue with our peers -- people who have to address the very same
issues in their country that we do in ours. In the decisions we make, we
are each driven by the same goal -- to ensure that we have the best
quality and most innovative telecommunications services available to our
citizens at reasonable rates. We can be honest and supportive with each
other, because we have faced -- or will face -- similar challenges as we
chart our regulator path for the future.

That's what I would like to focus on, briefly, at the close of these
remarkable days of discussion -- the future. We have talked about an
information and communications technology sector that is evolving and
"converging." And we have talked about the exciting developments in
broadband network technologies that will enable our societies to reach
for greater connectivity and capacity to achieve the goals of the
Information Society. Now I'd like to talk about ways that we, as
regulators, can help to harness and drive these trends that we have
talked about. I believe that it's important to focus on concrete steps,
many of which are spelled out in the groundbreaking document we just
approved, the *Best Practice Guidelines for the Promotion of Low-Cost
Broadband and Internet Connectivity*.

### **Evolution and Convergence**

There is no doubt that these guidelines can be timely and useful tools
to build toward the future-- because information and communications
technologies are evolving rapidly*.* The era when "plain old telephone
service" defined a country's telecommunications development is rapidly
receding. While voice service remains crucial to the demand for
telecommunications services, it is increasingly being delivered using
networks that are at least partially packet-switched. Through Voice over
IP technology, voice traffic can be transmitted at lower cost and
greater efficiency -- and delivered in combination with other
life-enhancing digital data and video services. This is clearly where
competition in landline voice service is heading and as a result it
creates regulatory challenges for all of us.

The use of the Internet and other packet-switched networks is steadily
growing. Of the nearly 700 million Internet users recorded globally last
year, 332 million had been added in just three years since the beginning
of the decade. Moreover, of those new users added in this millennium,
two-thirds were in developing economies. Clearly, the take-up of
Internet services is not only strong, but broad-based, as well.

Perhaps an even more fundamental evolution can be found in the global
explosion of wireless services. There are now more than 1.4 billion
mobile service customers around the world -- one out of every five
people on our planet. Mobile service is growing the fastest in
developing economies such as China and India, where market potential is
being tapped in earnest.

What's next on the horizon? Potentially, the mobile boom will pave the
way for the nexus of mobile capabilities with packet-switched data
services and applications. This is an especially attractive option for
the roughly 200 million people around the world who have a mobile phone,
but no landline service.

Meanwhile, communications and information technologies are converging.
As we have seen this week, there are several aspects of what we call
"convergence." Previously distinct networks and transmission platforms
-- such as landline and mobile telephone networks, cable TV systems and
satellites -- can be used to provide a full range of voice, data and
video offerings. Previously separate market segments, such as mobile and
land-line telephony, are merging into consolidated markets for
substitutable services. And companies from previously separate
industries are *literally* converging, through mergers and acquisitions,
to form wide-ranging media and communications market players.

The benefit to consumers is that convergence increasingly allows greater
competition among all kinds of different providers: incumbent telephone
companies, ISPs, cable TV system operators, direct-to-home satellite
providers -- even electric power utilities. Through digital transmission
and what I call "EoIP" -- *everything* over IP -- all of these types of
providers can enter each others' markets, where they will be forced to
lower prices, offer innovative service packages and pioneer new products
and services in order to attract greater market share. The result will
benefit for customers of all income scales.

# Broadband Is the Key

But let's resist the temptation to get ahead of ourselves. We all know
that simply identifying these promising trends does not make them a
reality in our own countries. This is true for developed and developing
economies alike. To a greater or lesser extent, we *all* face two major
challenges in providing an environment for the flourishing of digital
ICTs:

1.  Providing incentives for investment in broadband networks, and

2.  Adjusting our regulatory frameworks to accommodate the broadband
    revolution.

Broadband networks are the key to maximizing the promise of an evolving
and converging ICT sector. Without the bandwidth and throughput of
broadband networks, multimedia service packages and e-government
applications remain only a vision of where we would like to be.

We all recognize that broadband networks have the power to transform our
societies. This truth was brought home to me earlier this year when I
traveled to Alaska to visit a village above the Arctic Circle, where the
residents have incorporated DSL and wireless broadband services into
efforts to improve their daily lives. Using these broadband
technologies, a consortium established links to schools, health clinics
and many private homes. It was vivid proof of how broadband connections
can erase distances, dissolve geographic isolation, link citizens to
government services and energize local economies.

Similar broadband rollouts are being pioneered all over the world, as we
have heard in our discussions this week. Governments from Bhutan and
India to Latin America have in recent years experimented with broadband
network solutions -- many of them wireless -- to overcome distance and
isolation by linking villages and rural areas to national networks.
There is increasing evidence that broadband applications, such as
agricultural extension, tele-medicine and distance-education, may be
instrumental in appealing to rural constituencies and providing a
customer base for sustainable business operations.

What makes all this possible is the advent of new, low-cost broadband
technologies. As our discussions this week have indicated, there are
more and more options for linking communities and individuals to each
other and to the wider global community. In many nations, travelers and
residents are by now becoming familiar with the use of Wi-Fi hotspots
that provide broadband wireless Internet access, allowing individuals to
send and receive email or use VoIP services, all over the world.

**Lighter Regulation and Flexibility**

## These technologies -- and many others that are sure to follow -- can revolutionize our societies and help to close the "broadband divide" that exists within and among our countries. But their effects will be stunted or ephemeral if licensing and regulatory frameworks impose artificial barriers and disincentives to investment. So it is up to us to adjust, alter or reform our regulatory codes, wherever possible, to dismantle unnecessary 

Rules that may have been appropriate in traditional markets emerging
from monopoly, but which may stifle innovations and competitions in a
converged environment.

So that brings me to our best practices and to all that was accomplished
the past few days. We, all of you, put aside economic, geographic and
political differences to work for the good of all our citizens. As we go
back to our countries these guidelines can be signposts -- or perhaps
lighthouses -- marking the way forward in the rapidly evolving broadband
era. In broad terms, they remind us to keep in mind our national and
regional policy goals; to prepare the ground for competition and capital
investment; to ensure fair and reasonable access to broadband networks,
including the Internet; to reassess our regulatory structures in light
of convergence; and to adopt technology-neutral policies that do not
favor one technology or market segment over another.

I want to congratulate all of you and thank all of you for the time,
effort and thought that went into preparing this forward-looking
document. I believe it comes out of the finest tradition of guidance
from the GSR to our global family of regulators. It compliments and
builds on efforts we have made in previous years, including the *Best
Practice Guidelines for Universal Access*, enacted a year ago.

The *Broadband and Internet Connectivity Guidelines* we have embraced
here in Geneva largely speak for themselves. They are pro-active,
pro-competitive and reflect the realities we face daily as regulators. I
want to emphasize a handful of the guidelines, however, because they
point to the need for us to involve all segments of our societies in
supporting broadband development.

First, we recommend that the promotion of access to low-cost broadband
interconnectivity encompass all levels -- from identifying local,
"grass-roots" needs in our communities to cultivating support at the
highest levels of government. In this recommendation, we are making
clear that the broadband revolution is not an isolated project of each
country's communications ministry or regulatory agency. It must be an
integrated process, beginning with the authentic identification of
community needs and ending with a full mobilization of government and
non-governmental organizations.

Second, we encourage regulators to work with all stakeholders in
partnerships, to promote broadband development. This is further
recognition that our evolving, liberalized ICT sectors are increasingly
market driven -- but at the same time market forces can work in tandem
with government policy to deliver outcomes in the public interest.
Again, it is important to emphasize that each stakeholder has a role in
broadband deployment, and it is on all our interests to open new market
and offer services to new customers.

Finally, we properly recognize that, in the end, the objective of
regulation -- and of promoting the potential of broadband -- is to
improve the lives of our citizens. For that reason, we urge each other
to educate and inform consumers about the new services that will be
available to them through broadband networks and digital services. As we
work to close the broadband access gap, we have to ensure that our
citizens are empowered with the skills they need to make full use of
multimedia and computing applications that will be available to them.
This will build communities of users and stimulate the kind of demand
that will sustain broadband and IP-enable services in all kinds of
localities.

**Conclusion**

It has been my honor to chair the GSR this year and my privilege to work
with all of you. Moreover, it has been my joy to learn from you and to
share what I have learned so far in my tenure as a public servant. As I
said at the beginning of these remarks, perhaps only we, as colleagues,
know the full scope of the burdens and responsibilities we share as
telecommunications regulators. But then perhaps only we \-- through the
power of our determination and the wealth of our common knowledge \--
can reinvigorate our commitment to excellence in leading our countries
to realize the full potential of these communications technologies that
so amaze us \-- and the world. And that means we must continue to
support each as we all face challenges back home. Those of you just
starting out on the regulatory path, we are here to help with training
advice, and technical support. Those of you who are facing challenges to
your independent authority -- let us know -- let the BDT know and we
will see what we can do to help. If we do not support one another, who
will?

It is my hope that your faith in the potential good we can achieve
together stays with you as you leave Geneva and head back to your home
countries. If it does, then in my opinion, the broadband revolution has
not only begun, it is well on its way to being won. Thank you and
Godspeed to your homes and families.