Remarks of FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt
                    Hearing Aid Compatibility Summit
                             January 3, 1996


Thank you very much for that nice introduction.  Happy New Year to everybody.  

I want to tell you how proud I am of all of you.  This is the finest group of its kind that has
been assembled in the communications area.  This group is coming together with a better
spirit of cooperation, and a greater willingness to learn from each other, than any other group
that I ve had the pleasure of speaking to.  I want to congratulate the three wireless industry
groups that deserve great credit for causing this meeting to occur -- CTIA, PCIA, and PCS-
1900.  I also want to note that chief executives in this business are committing their personal
time to making sure that we find solutions.  These businesses are under tremendous
competitive pressures right now, and they are short on time, but they are absolutely
committed to making the time to find solutions to the problems that will be addressed in this
two-day session.  

I also want to acknowledge and thank the groups that are representing people with hearing
loss -- the Self Help for the Hard of Hearing People, Inc. and the Alexander Graham Bell
Association for the Deaf.  One thing I have learned at the FCC is how much we need the
participation and advocacy of groups like these.  Otherwise, we do not have a way to
understand the issues from the perspective of everyone in this country; and these are two of
the finest public interest advocacy groups that we work with.  Everyone should understand
that it is not a high paying job to work in these organizations, and we should be very grateful,
as a country, to these organizations for participating in this activity and for participating in a
very intelligent way in proceedings before the FCC.  I personally am grateful.  I could not
hope to accomplish anything in this area without their help.  

In addition, I would like to acknowledge the Hearing Industries Association and the American
Academy of Audiology.  It is so important that these institutions also participate in the
activities at the FCC, and it s so important that we are open to their input and their advice. 
I d also like to acknowledge Dr. Hank Grant, Chairman of the Center for the Study of
Wireless Electromagnetic Compatibility at the University of Oklahoma, for doing terrific work
at the University of Oklahoma.  It is very important that we all recognize the high quality of
the research that is being done at the University of Oklahoma under Dr. Grant s leadership. 
And it s very important to recognize that, in the future, all of us can benefit from continued
funding, and continued work by this particular center.  

I want to introduce to you Michele Farquhar, the new Chief of the Wireless Bureau.  Michele
cares very much about these issues and you are going to find that the Wireless Bureau,
working with the Office of Engineering and Technology, will be extremely open to the advice
and guidance of everyone in this room.  I want to apologize for the fact that Michele and her
colleagues in the Wireless Bureau are not able to participate in any of the meetings during
these two days.  Michele is an "emergency employee" for the purpose of running the auctions
that we are conducting.  She can stop by here for a cup of coffee -- but she cannot participate
in the meetings.  This is, of course, because of the budget crisis.  It is a great disappointment
to all of us at the FCC that we are not permitted to have any representatives from the FCC
attend your meetings.  I m sorry.  We will do everything we can to make up for this later. 
We are going to ask that a transcript of all of the proceedings be made available to us.  We
will study your progress carefully and will stay completely up to speed with what you re
doing.  So I need to ask you to accept our apologies.  Nevertheless, I m very glad that you
are going ahead with this summit -- this is the right time and the right place to pursue these
issues.  I m very grateful for the spirit that animates everyone here -- it is a can do, will do,
must do spirit.  

This country of ours is a country of dreamers and doers.  The dream I have is that the FCC is
going to do just what the group of you conclude that we should do.  And I believe that all of
the dreams of everyone here can be accomplished if you work together in good faith and if
you spend the time tackling the hard issues -- issues of technology, cost, and engineering
solutions.  There should be no issue about the willingness of everyone here to find solutions
to the problem of compatibility.  And I believe that there are no disputes about the
willingness to find solutions.  Because of that, I m positive that you will find solutions.  One
of the best parts of my wonderful job is the ability to participate in solutions that you all are
finding.  

Now, I often say that I got my job primarily because I have the same birthday as Alexander
Graham Bell.  This is March 3rd.  What you may not know is that March 3rd is not only the
birthday of Alexander Graham Bell, but was the day on which he first arranged a meeting
between Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, her teacher.  Annie Sullivan brought the tools of
communication to Helen Keller who, as you all know, became the most important and
influential person with disabilities in her generation.  It is so appropriate to think of this
particular story, because the Annie Sullivans of the Information Age are the business
representatives who are participating in this group.  They are the people who are going to
bring the tools of communication to all Americans -- including people who have disabilities --
and they are going to assure that these tools of communication include all Americans in the
Information Age.  

Now, I know everyone here swears allegiance to the great compact of the communications
sector.  We want to bring the benefits of communications to everyone, all the time,
everywhere.  To this end, we at the FCC realize that as Abraham Lincoln said at the time of
the Civil War,  As our case is new, so we must think anew.   So, as we think anew at the
FCC, we try to hold fast to two principles:  first, we believe that private sector competition
will build us the best, the biggest, the most innovative communications industry and
information economy on the planet.  Second, we believe that marketplace competition will not
give us all that we desire from the communications revolution.  We need to be ever vigilant
that the public benefits that come from the communications revolution are available to
everyone, even if marketplace competition would not necessarily make it so.  

There is no more competitive communications market in the world than the wireless
communications market in the United States, except maybe the market in Sweden.  There are
a few countries that have shown us the benefits of having a fully developed, robust, multi-
operator wireless communications industry, and that is what we are going to get in the United
States within a matter of weeks and months, as we complete the auctions of our licenses. 
These auctions will lead to five, six, or seven different global communications companies
operating in every part of this country.  It s very important for those of us not actually in
these businesses to have sympathy for the tremendous competitive pressures on these
businesses.  These pressures start with the pressure to win at the auctions.  

The auctions so far have raised almost $10 billion.  Almost $8 billion came in a single check
that I handed the Vice President and the President of the United States.  They were grateful. 
It is a great thing when your President is grateful to you.  And I m grateful to all the
companies that gave us the money so that I could hand that check over.  We are going to give
additional checks to the President in the very near future.  Even now we are in the middle of
the largest auction of PCS spectrum measured in terms of the number of bidders and the
number of licenses.  This is the auction of the third swatch of PCS spectrum -- the C block. 
This auction already is up to $1.2 billion in terms of monies bid.  It will start again this week. 
Two hundred and fifty small businesses and entrepreneurs are bidding.  Many of these
participants will be winners.  We will end up with hundreds of small businesses joining the
competition against the big businesses that won at the previous auctions.  These small
businesses will bring their own unique ideas and their own ideas about technology to the
wireless communications market.  

And there are still more auctions yet to come -- all wireless businesses will be competing. 
Many wireless services will be pursued in the wake of the auctions.  Now, as a country, if we
stick to the principles of auctioning the airwaves and being flexible about the use, we will
generate millions of new jobs, and billions of dollars of growth.  And those jobs will be jobs
that employ everyone who s represented by the groups in this room.  Nobody raises money
better than the FCC -- we call it the Federal Cash Cow.  But the real importance of the
auctions is that they expedite a competitive licensing process, they jump start huge
investment, and they mobilize tremendous innovation.  

One of the most important parts of the auction is that at the FCC, we refused to let any single
business talk us into mandating its particular technology for using the airwaves.  We refuse to
let anybody tell us that they (and only they) knew the best transmission technology to use. 
Instead we said, "let the marketplace determine the best transmission technologies."  It may
well be that there is room in the marketplace for many different technologies.  And now there
will be hundreds of new winners in the auction that I just mentioned, and we should stick to
this principle for them as well.  They should use the transmission technologies that give them
cost-effective solutions to the problem of competition in the marketplace.  We should not let
the FCC micro-manage these technologies.  We should not fall for the European idea of
picking one standard for all parts of the country as Europe did for the continent.  We should
not thereby limit innovation or create barriers to new entrants or restrict competition by
picking a single standard.  

Our flexible approach will create a revolution that will change the world.  Is there a downside
to this flexible approach?  We are all here out of a concern that this pure commitment to
marketplace competition may introduce the downside that some of these new technologies will
not be compatible with some previously existing devices in our country -- specifically with
hearing aids.  Let's be clear about this.  There are going to be many new wireless
technologies in the next several years and decades, and repeatedly we are going to find out
that there are possibilities of incompatibility between these new wireless uses and devices that
are in the marketplace.  

What you are doing here is setting a model for finding future solutions as new technologies
are rolled out and as problems of compatibility are identified.  Let's focus on the key
principles of what you are doing.  First of all, we are all going to work together to identify
problems as soon as they can be spotted.  Second, we are going to recognize that in each case
it will be necessary to understand the technology, to understand the problems and to engage
not in rhetoric, but in realistic fact-finding and assessment.  Third, we are not going to delay
investment in the communications revolution.  We re not going to let that happen.  Fourth, we
are not going to fall for the idea that the FCC is going to mandate technologies, or pick single
standards and stifle innovation.  It is in innovation that we are going to find the solutions to
many problems, including the problems of compatibility.  

So we re not going to fall for the idea that the government, by picking single standards, will
lock anyone into a status quo.  If we do that, I guarantee we will find that the status quo does
not generate the kinds of solutions that we need.  It does not generate opportunities to bring
people with disabilities into the Communications Age.  And last but not least, we are not
going to say glibly that the marketplace, all by itself, will certainly solve all compatibility
problems.  There s a reason why we re not going to say that.  It is a fact in this country that
people with disabilities are people on the lower end of the income ladder, on average.  More
than two-thirds of people with serious disabilities in this country are unemployed.  People
with serious disabilities in this country have much lower average income.  They do not
necessarily have the economic clout to force marketplace changes that benefit them.  And
that s why we re not going to glibly say that the marketplace will generate solutions to all
their problems.  

This summit reflects all of the principles I ve just mentioned at work.  Problems are being
identified early -- we re not just brushing them off by saying the marketplace will solve them. 
But we are not going to stifle innovation.  We are not going to slow down investment.  We
are not going to put the brakes on the communications revolution.  What we re going to do is
spot the problems in a hurry, come together in groups like this, and we re going to keep
doing this until we get the solutions.  And we re going to need to keep doing it year after
year, because the wireless revolution is going to sweep the communications sector of this
country for years and decades to come, and everyone should enjoy it.  Now we have to do
this because I promised we would do this to Miss America.  Miss America of 1995, Heather
Whitestone, came to lunch with me at the FCC.  For those of you who rightly thought she
was wasting her time with a middle-aged married guy, I can assure you that, on the same day,
she visited the Speaker of the House, met one of his staffers, and is now going to marry that
young handsome fellow.  But Miss America visited me because she wanted to share with me
the story of how she used a cellular telephone to speak for the first time in her life to her
mother, because Miss America is deaf.  That is a story about how the communications
revolution can help people with disabilities participate in the communications revolution. I
promised her and she promised me that we would join with many other people in this country
and make sure that story is repeated again and again.  

Now I don t claim credit for the brilliant idea of this summit meeting, but I was pleased to
gather the business leaders of the wireless industry in my office a couple of months ago.  And
I saw them promise to me and promise to each other and promise to all of you that they
would find solutions to the compatibility problem.  I believe them.  I trust them.  They re
here today backing up those promises.  And I need to know that I can count on the same
promises from the groups representing those with hearing disabilities.  You know you can
count on us to care, and you can count on us to keep on caring about the issues that you ve
identified.  And I need to count on you to find compromises and practical solutions in the
course of these meetings.  

The key here is to move quickly to find the solutions before we go any further in the
communications revolution.  We re here because we want to move as fast as possible to
address the impacts of new wireless communications technologies on the hearing aid
community.  And I need you to move just as quickly as we are granting licenses -- and that s
quick!  Michele Farquhar will have three auctions underway by Friday of this week.  Three
auctions at one time.  No one has ever held three auctions of this magnitude at one time in
history -- another entry for the Guinness Book of World Records.  What I want to underscore
is that this means that still more businesses will soon enter the marketplace, still more
technologies are going to be tried out, still more work for the University of Oklahoma, still
more issues for all of you.  You can handle it.  

Now, ultimately will the government have to be involved?  Will the FCC have to, in some
way, take over this process and issue rules?  

Well, let me share a story in a Lincoln biography that I'm reading now.  A group of people
came to Lincoln at one point and said they had a problem.  You ve probably heard about it. 
We don t want you to be involved, we don t want the government to be involved, we want
you to promise that you won t do anything.  So Lincoln answered by telling them a story.  He
said that there was a lion that was in love with a lady, and the parents of the lady disapproved
of the match.  They had to think of a reason to act on this disapproval, so they said to the
lion, "Oh lion, your teeth are too sharp, we don t want you to be involved with this lady.  But
it would be all right for you to go out with our daughter if you were to remove your teeth. 
Take them all out, take the sharp ones out, grind down all of your teeth and then we will
permit you to go out with our daughter."  So the lion -- who very much cared about the lady
-- took out all of his teeth.  Then the parents hit him on the head with a stone and killed him. 
So everyone went away from President Lincoln thinking maybe the government won t
necessarily stay uninvolved in this issue.  Maybe the prospect of teeth is useful from time to
time.  

We re never going to get to the stage of throwing stones at anyone.  And this lion of potential
rule making is going to lie down with all of you lambs here.  You look like lambs to me.  I
know you re not pulling the wool over my eyes.  But I am saying this to you:  I am
expecting, and we re expecting at the FCC, specific action items to come out of this meeting. 
That s going to require a give and take in the course of these sessions.  No one here should
assume that the FCC would necessarily issue rules that gratify their wishes.  No one should
assume that.  Everyone should be driven by a sense that it is going to be necessary to find
compromise solutions.

And everyone here should recognize that what we all want is for the United States to show
worldwide leadership.  We have almost one-half of the world s users of global telephony in
this country.  We have almost six times as many cellular subscribers as there are in Japan --
the biggest country in terms of numbers of users.  Cellular subscribership is growing
worldwide at a rate of seventy percent a year -- an astounding growth rate.  But we in this
country have the ability to show the way for the rest of the world.  We will show the way in
terms of auctions; we will show the way in terms of getting licenses out fairly; we will show
the way in terms of competition; we must also show the way in terms of our sensitivity, our
flexibility, and our intelligence in solving problems surrounding compatibility with hearing
aids.  That s a great opportunity.  None of you are going to lose that opportunity -- all of you
are going to take advantage of it.  I m so sorry again that we re not permitted to participate
directly and personally during these meetings, but all of us at the FCC wait very confidently
to receive the fruits of your work.  

Thank you very much for inviting me.