**STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS**

**U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION FIELD
HEARING ON**

**"THE STATE OF BROADBAND IN ARKANSAS"**

**LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS**

**AUGUST 28, 2007**

            Good morning and thank you Senator Pryor for inviting me to
be here with you and so many good Arkansans this morning. I'm happy to
be here for many reasons. First, I worked in the U.S. Senate for many
years and getting to spend some quality time with our Senate leaders is
always exciting for me---especially when it's someone who epitomizes the
best of the Senate---mastering the issues, knowing how to work across
the aisle to get things done, and having an expansive vision for this
great country of ours. Like your father before you, you add luster to
the Senate. I'm also glad to be here because of the proximity of the
Presidential Library. I had the honor of serving President Bill Clinton
as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development and I am so
proud of what he accomplished for America both at home and around the
world and proud of the opportunity he gave me to serve.

            "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow," Bill Clinton told us.
And that's what this hearing is all about---tomorrow. Where are we
heading in this still-new Twenty-first century and what role are
telecommunications going to play in shaping our future? My answer to
that is that the future will belong to those who learn best how to
deploy all these new technologies, products and services. My answer is
we ***have to get this right*** for America. And part of my answer,
unfortunately, is that right now we're not where we need to be. Oh, I
know we all have lots of new gizmos and gadgets and that advanced
telecommunications like broadband have brought us some pretty
fundamental changes, including right here in Arkansas. But I also know
that other countries are eating our lunch in building their
communications infrastructures and I believe that America's lack of a
concerted national strategy to get back in the lead is tantamount to
playing Russian roulette with our future.

Let me begin by saying that my overriding objective since going to the
FCC in 2001 has been to bring the best, most accessible and
cost-effective communications system in the world to all of our
people---and I mean ***all ***of our people.  We can't leave anybody
behind in this great new age of high-speed communications.  That means
those who live in rural America, those who live in the inner city and
those who live on tribal lands; it means not just the affluent and
privileged, but those who are economically disadvantaged and those with
disabilities.  Each and every citizen of this great country should have
access to the wonders of communications.  I'm not talking about doing
all these people some kind of feel-good, do-gooder favor by including
them; I'm talking about doing America a favor. I'm talking about making
certain our citizens can compete here at home and around the world with
those who are already using broadband in all aspects of their lives.  

            The way I see it, broadband is really the great
infrastructure challenge of our time.  If you course back through the
annals of America's past, you will find that just about every major era
confronted a stark infrastructure challenge.  In the early days, as we
settled new lands, the need was to get the produce and products of our
settlers to market---so we built roads and turnpikes and ports and
canals to get the job done. Then, as we became a continental, industrial
power, we needed railroads to bring the nation together, so we laid a
railway grid across the country, climaxed by the great saga of the
transcontinental railroads.  Closer to our own era, in the Eisenhower
years, came the Interstate Highway System, to bind city and state and
nation.  Even in telecom, we found ways to get telephone service out to
most of our citizens. And here's my point: in all of these great
infrastructure build-outs, there has always been a critical role for
business, local community organizations and government to work together
toward a great national objective.  We didn't just throw up our hands
and say "Leave it to somebody else," or "the market will automatically
get it all done." No, these things were the business of the people.
That's how we looked at these challenges. That's how we overcame them.
That, my friends, is precisely how we built this great country of ours.
We pulled together and worked together.  You know, we all rightly value
that great Declaration of Independence and that glorious fight for
freedom, but in reality it was millions of Americans making a
declaration of interdependence, one upon the other, that won us our
freedom and allowed us to build the greatest nation in history.

            To me---and I believe this deeply---the broadband networks
are the roads and canals and railways and highways of the Information
Age. Our future will be decidedly affected by how we master, or fail to
master, advanced communications networks and how quickly and how well we
build out high-speed communications connectivity.  If we succeed, we
will create millions upon millions of new educational and economic
opportunities.  We will see new local businesses---and local
governments, too---providing tremendous value-added services everywhere
in the country.  We will advance medical care through the development
and delivery of new health services.  We will ensure that schools and
libraries are huge digital resources for their communities.  We will
give that aspiring small business person in any number of rural Arkansas
communities a level field on which to compete with folks in the city and
competitors around the globe.

            Those who get access to high-speed broadband will win. 
Those who don't will lose.  It's as simple as that.  I want to help make
sure we all get there, and that America's rural communities get there as
soon as everyone else.  I'll tell you this with confidence: if
high-speed broadband is permitted to be primarily an urban phenomenon,
the digital gap in this country that already separates urban and rural
America will grow still wider and rural America will be relatively worse
off in the Twenty-first century of modern communications than it was in
the days of plain old telephone service in the last century.  We can't
let that happen.  This competitive world of ours is not going to make
time for rural America to catch up.  That may sound harsh, but it's also
true. 

 The important question, of course, is what can we do about all this? 
Now I don't happen to think there is a one-size-fits-all broadband
solution for this country.  The Ozarks in northern Arkansas will likely
require a different tact than the flat expanses of the Delta along the
eastern border. And surely whatever plans we have for dense urban
centers like Austin or Denver are not going to be the ticket for success
in our rural communities.  There are great differences---in population,
culture and topography across this vast land of ours.  So we need to
embrace all kinds of solutions if we have any chance of succeeding.

I think that means we need a Universal Service Fund that has broadband
as its core mission. It means encouraging communities to develop
innovative solutions to getting broadband out. It means having a Federal
Communications Commission that provides the hard data we all need to
understand exactly where we are---basic things like who actually has
broadband, what it is costing, and how fast it is. It means having an
FCC that is committed to deploying its expertise and assistance much
more proactively than has been the case in recent years. It means
government coming up with solutions that might include tax incentives,
more Rural Utilities Service loans, public-private partnerships, and
encouraging some old fashioned competition. And it means having
government at all levels implementing a creative, comprehensive and
well-funded strategy.

I look forward to getting your thoughts today. I want to understand
better where you are and where you think we should be heading. So thank
you all for coming here today---providers, local officials, educators,
entrepreneurs, technologists, consumers and citizens who understand the
real challenges and promise in your home state. I have no doubt that
what I hear today will help shape my views as I work back in Washington
to craft policies that can bring broadband to all Americans. And I am
optimistic that everyone here, pulling and hauling together, can make
sure that in the broadband revolution of our time no community---and no
Arkansan---is left behind.