Keynote Address of

FCC Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy

New England Cable & Telecommunications Association

Newport, RI

July 15, 2005

(as prepared for deliver)

In putting together some notes for my remarks this morning I came across
several quotes attributed to Ann Hutchinson, the remarkable woman who
was one of the founders of Rhode Island.

Ann was the daughter of a preacher who paid dearly in her lifetime for
the eloquence of her nonconformist views. Banished from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony for speaking out against the intolerant
governance of that colony, she came to what is now Aquidneck Island and
established the first civil government in Rhode Island.

Always outspoken in her opposition to both religious and civil
authoritarianism in any form, Ann responded to charges of heresy by
declaring that, "Laws, commands, rules and edicts are for those who have
not the light which makes plain the pathway."

Imagine that. This fearlessly independent seventeenth-century woman
stood strong for her freedom, and for the ability to act and speak
unfettered by attempts of the powers-that-be to restrict her actions,
and her speech, to protect the status quo.

I have a feeling that, if she were living today, Ann Hutchinson would
smile to see this same spirit of independence and individualism
reflected in your industry. From its earliest days as "community antenna
TV," cable television truly *has* held fast to the principles of
entrepreneurialism and deregulation as "the light that makes plain the
pathway."

Weathering regulatory challenges from anti-leapfrogging rules and
distant signal quotas \-- is anybody here old enough to remember those?
\-- through rate regulation and battles over digital must-carry, your
industry has persevered to create an array of nonbroadcast entertainment
and information services that have defined multichannel video service
and transformed the television industry. Once just a prickly rash on the
extremities of broadcasters' service areas, cable television, thanks to
your unflagging entrepreneurial spirit and a favorable deregulatory
environment, has become the dominant provider of video entertainment and
information programming in the United States today.

And now the Supreme Court has put its imprimatur on the FCC's ability to
shine that same deregulatory light on cable's advanced broadband service
offerings. The recent *Brand X* decision provides the Commission with
the definitive authority we have long sought to allow cable modem
services to exist and grow in a minimally-regulated space. Just as
exciting, it gives us the ability to ease the regulatory burdens
currently borne by wireline providers of similar broadband services. To
those of us who have long sought to avoid imposing legacy regulation on
new services, the *Brand X* decision is, as my nine year-old daughter
Julia would say, *sweet.*

And yes, it is *sweet* \-- but it is not yet *complete.* For although
*Brand X* confirms the FCC's jurisdiction to refrain from imposing a
daunting panoply of common carrier-type regulation on cable modem
service, it says nothing about the more difficult question precisely
what *other* kinds of rules we can or *should* impose in the interests
of the common good. There are, potentially, a number of these: E911,
CALEA, USF, perhaps even residual ISP access issues. Obviously, how the
FCC fills in the blanks with respect to such issues in the months to
come will affect the rollout of both cable and non-cable broadband
services in the future and the ability of broadband service providers to
compete effectively with each other to win the hearts and pocketbooks of
consumers.

And so *Brand X,* gratifying as it is, really only shows the Commission
where it can go; it doesn't tell us how to get there. In my remaining
time at the Commission, I will work to bring about the least possible
regulation of *all* providers of broadband, whether cable modem or DSL,
whether wired or wireless. That's the surest, fastest way to assure that
broadband services are available at competitive rates to every consumer
wishing to subscribe.

If anyone needs proof that a light regulatory touch is better for
consumers than a big book full of rules, they need look no further than
your lightly-regulated industry's success in having become the dominant
mode of television reception in the United States today, and in having
established cable modem service as the leading player in the market for
advanced broadband services.

Lest anyone think these results anomalous, they need look no further
than a newly-released FCC report showing that the number of subscribers
to minimally-regulated wireless services now surpasses the number of
subscribers to heavily-regulated landline telephone service. Experience
confirms that consumers love innovation, and marketplace competition
begets innovation far better than even the most well-intended
bureaucrat's attempts to micromanage it into existence.

What I would ask of you today is to remember that deregulation, the
"light that makes plain the pathway," lights the way for *all* providers
of telecommunications services, not just your own. To allow the greatest
number of consumers possible to have access to the wonders that advanced
broadband service can provide, *all* providers of that service should be
allowed to enter the market and compete as free from extrinsic
regulation as possible.

There is too much at stake for us, nationally as well as individually,
to not allow the light of deregulation to shine equally on all broadband
service providers, and to not allow all competitors, wired and wireless
alike, to exercise their entrepreneurialism and far-sightedness as the
cable industry has done. In that way, *your* experience, and *your*
great success, will help provide the light that will make plain the
pathway for others.