NEWS                                                          June 11, 1996

        CHAIRMAN HUNDT SAYS COMMUNICATIONS IS DRIVING INVESTMENT
          BOOM; URGES RETRAINING WORKERS AS COMPANIES RETOOL TO
                                COMPETE 
                                    
     "The communications revolution must always be a revolution driven by and directed
for the benefit of the working people of this country,"  FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said.

     In a speech to the Annual Convention of the Communications Workers of American
Conference in Detroit Monday, Hundt said, "In the last ten years almost every single new
job created in this country was an information technology related job. . . . In fact, two of
every three jobs in the private sector today are based on information technology."

      Hundt said that the country's current investment boom "is being led principally by
investment in information technology. The wireless investment boom, driven by our
competitive auctions, is a prime example." Referring to the fact that business investment
since 1993 is at the highest rate since the Kennedy Administration, Hundt said, "Competition
in communications markets helps increase the country's investment rate If the FCC does its
job right, that investment rate will go still higher.

     Hundt said communications technology can help workers "in obtaining the high
skill/high wage jobs available in an information economy," and he called on companies to
"train, don't derail your people." He said, "Companies should focus on offering organized
workers opportunities as they restructure their divisions to compete more effectively. It
seems clear that companies talking about merging should not lay off workers that they really
need in order to grow."

     He said, "New studies show that companies that follow the downsizing fad leave
themselves not lean and mean, but weak and meek, when the competition comes after their
customers.  It's just good business to do right by your workers. It's just good business to
create an environment where people learn continuously," he said.

     Hundt said that in implementing the new Telecommunications Act, the job of the FCC
"is to give everyone a fair chance, promote investment and job creation, and let the best
workforce win the competition," and he told communciations workers, "All Americans need
your tools to do their jobs."

                                 - FCC - 

                                 SPEECH BY
                            CHAIRMAN REED HUNDT
                     FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

                         COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF
                            AMERICA CONFERENCE
                             Detroit, Michigan

                               June 10, 1996

                A Communications Revolution for Everyone

     I want to start by thanking Morty Bahr for his leadership and for his personal
friendship to me during my two and a half years at the FCC.  Morty is the finest, straightest,
firmest advocate I have ever met.  He shows leadership, vision and practicality.  He is
universally respected.

     You should know that Morty was the first labor leader in the world to attend a Group
of Seven meeting on communications in Johannesburg, South Africa last month.  I'm going
to talk more about that meeting later, but it won't surprise you that no one in the impressive
American delegation made a better or bigger impression than Morty.

     It's also a special honor to be invited to speak to you on the same program as the
First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.  

     If you haven't had the chance to listen to the First Lady before you are in for a treat.  

     Just recently, she has spoken eloquently, passionately and intelligently in support of
the Children's Television Act and Free TV.  Hillary Clinton writes, talks and acts to
guarantee that all Americans benefit from the communications revolution.  She is probably
the first First Lady ever to speak to CWA.  But did you know that I am only the second
FCC chairman in history to speak to your convention?  

     I also want to thank you for scheduling your meeting here in Detroit.  It's great to be
in the hometown of John Dingell.  Chairman Dingell is a source of deep wisdom and fine
advice to me and it's a pleasure to be on his home turf.  I talked to John just this morning
and he asked me to thank you for your prudent and practical help in passing our new
telecommunications law.  He has the greatest respect for you.

     I also enjoy returning to Michigan because I was born here and my 95-year-old
grandmother, my aunt, and a cousin still live here.  I was actually born a few miles west of
here, in Ann Arbor.  My father was going to school on the GI bill at that time.  He and my
mother had the idea that he'd get his degree first, then a job, then start a family. 

     When I arrived, some time before graduation, he had to implement that plan in the
opposite order.  It wasn't easy.  The GI Bill was a godsend.

     Wouldn't it be great if we had that GI Bill again?  That's what the President is trying
to recreate in his new college tuition plan.  We were very proud at the FCC to see that part
of the funding for the President's new idea -- part of the way the families you are trying to
raise could send kids to college -- would come from future auctions of airwaves.

     Auctioning airwaves is just one of the jobs of the FCC.  

     Our primary mission is twofold:  to get real competition in communications markets
and to guarantee certain public benefits from the communications revolution.

     Now if you read the newspapers you think the communications revolution is all about
one big company gobbling up another.

     But the communications revolution is not really about the business world's ups and
downs. It is about people.

     This revolution must always be driven by and directed for the benefit of the working
people of this country.

     That is how it has been for my family.  I told you about my father at the University
of Michigan Law School.  The GI Bill paid his tuition.  But let me tell you how he got in
that school to begin with.  In the middle of the Great Depression my father's father died. 
His mother, my grandmother, was suddenly a widow, with a child.  She needed a job and
she had no skills in the known industries of the time.  But the communications revolution
was then spreading across the country a new kind of job.  It was called switchboard
operator.  Those who were willing to learn the skills and work the hours were paid decent
wages.

     Unions helped make that possible.

     So my grandmother worked those long hours and made a good wage, and kept her
family going in the Depression.  And that's how my grandmother and great-grandmother put
my father through high school, and then through the University of Wisconsin, so that after
the war he got a law degree at the great University of Michigan. 

     That's my family's version of the American Dream come true.  We're in debt to the
communications revolution, and the jobs it created for my family and millions of other
families.

     Even now my goal at the FCC is to give other families the chance to have the
economic opportunities that saved my family.
 
     When the Vice President first began talking about the information highway -- a term
he invented more than 20 years ago -- he talked about another way the communications
revolution can make dreams come true.  

     He said without leaving that very small town schoolchildren could go to school in the
Library of Congress by riding the information highway to a world of learning far beyond the
capacity of the good people of Carthage to build for her.

     And that's why the Vice President and the President fought to have in the new law
passed this year special provisions that require us to put communications technology into
every classroom in this country.

     The new Telecommunications Act of 1996, which now keeps us up late at night at the
FCC, opens all communications markets to competition -- if the FCC and its allies at the
state commissions can write fair rules of competition.  And it commits this country for the
first time to make phone service affordable to all Americans and to build advanced
telecommunications services to all kids in all classrooms in all schools in all school districts
of all states.

     As the Army poster used to say, This Means You.

     Why is this so important?  Because if we create the right incentives you will be able
to build the information highway to all Americans.  

     For every child and every citizen to have his or her fair chance to make the American
dream come true, each must have access to the best information.

     The solution lies in our schools and in our libraries -- yet only one in nine classrooms
has access to the Internet.  And, although about 45% of public libraries are linked to the
Internet, the majority offer access only to their staff.

     I've been to classrooms on the network in Harlem and Dallas and Washington, D.C.
and Bangor, Maine.  I've even joined the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School
District in pulling a wire through to classrooms in Mar Vista, California.  For those of you
who build networks for a living, let me tell you I'm no competition.

     But I can testify that it's astonishing how communications networks improve
education for the better.  Everything that is supposed to go up goes up when kids and
teachers have the most modern tools of learning.  Attendance, grades, test scores and
enthusiasm are up; bureaucracy, frustration, and even tardiness are down.

     Communications technology can improve education quality.  And it can help
guarantee educational equality.

     And it can assist their parents in obtaining the high skill/high wage jobs available in
an information economy.

     In the last ten years almost every single new job created in this country was an
Information Technology related job.

     In fact, two of every three jobs in the private sector today are based on information
technology.

     Success in the job market from here on out lies down the info highway.  You know
this better than anyone.  You're building that highway.

     In economic terms, it is a natural consequence that competition in communications
markets helps increase the country's investment rate.  The good news already is that business
investment since 1993 -- at the highest rate since the Kennedy Administration.

     And the investment boom is being led principally by investment in information
technology.  The wireless investment boom, driven by our competitive auctions, is a prime
example. 

     If the FCC does its job right, that investment rate will go still higher.

     The investors will be AT&T in the Bell's markets and the Bells in AT&T's markets. 
It will be all over the country.  And this investment will directly translate to new jobs.

     One of the saddest facts of the last few years has been the bizarre behavior of
businesses bludgeoned by Wall Street into downsizing loyal and skilled workforces. . . only
to find out that they needed their full workforce to make their huge new investments payoff. 
And so then they have to pay top dollar to hire and train brand new people.
 
     Under Morty's leadership CWA has been a leader in trying to persuade business to
work with the current workforce.  Here's what you're telling them:  Train, don't derail, your
people.  Don't be a fool, just retool your workers.  

     That's your message and it's starting to take hold.

     New studies show that companies that follow the downsizing fad leave themselves not
lean and mean, but weak and meek when the competition comes after their customers.  And
companies that value and empower their workers are more productive and successful.

     It's just good business to do right by your workers.  

     It's just good business to create an environment where people learn continuously.

     Increased competition means companies will have to compete not just on price but on
service.  And as Morty recently said, "Market share will go to those who give the best
service, who give the best quality.  That's going to be determined by the best-motivated
workforce."  In short, you are going to provide the extra value to the customer and the
companies ought to recognize that value.

     So it seems clear that companies should focus on offering organized workers
opportunities as they restructure their divisions to compete more effectively.  It seems clear
that companies talking about merging should agree not to lay off workers that in fact they
really need in order to grow.

     When Morty and I were at the G-7 meeting in South Africa, everyone told us about
the goal of doubling the number of access lines in the next five years.  So why were
businesses talking about downsizing the South African communications workers union?  They
should have been talking about training them.  As a legacy of apartheid, half of those ----
can't read.  

     But it took Morty Bahr to offer to the South African workers a special initiative to
tackle their literacy problem.  You can't put in fiber until you can read the manual.  In South
Africa Morty sent a message to the rest of the world:  start by caring about your workers
and you'll be building your information highway from the right starting place.

     Now here at home we have our own opportunities to seize.  At the FCC, we should
start with creating real competition in communications markets and guaranteeing real public
benefits from the changes.

     You know I realized when I arrived at the FCC two and half years ago that one of the
most important jobs I had was to try to get a fair return for the American taxpayer on the
rights to use the airwaves through the auctions.  The reason we have auction power is
President Clinton.

     His astoundingly successful 1993 budget law not only has given us the lowest deficit
in my adult life.  It also gave the FCC auction power for the very first time.

     We used to give away the public's airwaves for free to people with the best lawyers
and lobbyists.

     Under the old order when you heard the soft squish of the Gucci shoes sliding
smoothly down our linoleum halls at the ramshackle FCC offices then you would just know
that it was License Time.  Time for the big giveaways.  

     Under the new way of doing things we're proud to hold the auctions open to the
public.  Anyone can bid.  And the licenses go out in months not years.

     So far we have raised for the American people more than $20 billion in auctions of
airwaves. 

     That's more money than Bill Gates has.

     Of course, unlike the FCC, Gates gets to keep his.

     Our next task at the FCC is to write fair rules of competition that let all industries
compete fairly against each other. 

     The four of us Commissioners occasionally stumble on the Republican-Democratic
point of difference.  We don't always compromise as quickly and efficiently as we ought to. 
We need to learn the skills of consensus-building.  Nothing is served when we break down
two against two in terminal gridlock.  

     I'm learning about compromise from Jim Quello on the Children's TV issue.  His
recent willingness to move to a three-hour minimum is a sign of the spirit to reach consensus
that we need on all issues.  Right here in his hometown I salute Jim's leadership and
flexibility.  

     It's still too early to say we'll reach consensus on the key telecommunications policy
issues.  

     Our toughest intellectual job is to figure out the relationship between universal
service, access charge reform and interconnection rules.  It's not our duty to decide if AT&T
or MCI or a Bell company is to be the winner.  The skills of the employees of those
companies should determine that.  

     Our job is to give everyone a fair chance, promote investment and job creation, and
let the best workforce win the competition.  But the balance of all these new proceedings is
an extremely complex task.  I believe that we have the expertise in the Commission staff to
find the compromise, and I hope the Commissioners will agree.  

     It's so important that we succeed.

     The First Lady would say, "It Takes A Village To Raise a Child."  She meant, of
course, that is creating the American Dream for every generation we have a common task. 
In the confirmation age that Dream can become real only if you give us all the tools.  You
have to build the virtual village farms -- you have to create the community of
communications that lets us work and think and act together.  You're the railway builders
and canal builders and home builders of the 21st century.  At the FCC we're counting on
you to help the Commission do its jobs just as all Americans need your tools to do their jobs. 
We are all counting on you and I know you won't let us down.  
                                   -FCC-