good morning to everyone today the subcommittee conducts its first oversight hearing of the federal communications commission during the course of the one hundred eleventh congress this hearing was postponed  y scheduled date in july and one benefit of the postponement is that today we have a full complement of f c c commissioners before us i'm pleased to welcome each of you this morning and i would note that of each of you in the months to come and to working closely with you as together we address the nation's telecommunications needs before commenting on current issues i want to take this opportunity to commend commissioner cops for his leadership and helping to ensure the success of the d t d transition and serving as acting chairman with great distinction during a period of several busy months your commitment commissioner cops to consumer education and including the deployment of knowledgeable staff around the nation was essential to ensuring that the vast majority of households were prepared for the transition on the transition date of june the thirteenth i also want to commend commissioner mcdowell for his collaboration with commissioner cops in that effort and particularly thank him for his role  bringing attention to the fact that as of last january the f c c scald centers were adequately staffed and badly under prepared to handle the expected high volume of calls from viewers who were seeking t koski from our previous discussions i'm very much aware of the priority that you're assigning to the creation of a broadband plan for the nation which is due in mid february of next year the blueprint is urgently needed to promote universal broadband access to achieve data rates that are substantially higher than the average speeds that users have available today and to promote greater demand for broadband among those who have access but choose not to subscribe to it i know that you share these goals and we look forward to working with you very closely as you prepare this plan and look forward to the plan that you will present in the early months of next year many other matters are receiving both our attention and yours i'll comment briefly on several of them and ask for any views you care to express these more this morning about these matters our subcommittee has scheduled an upcoming hearing on the need for a nationwide interoperable communications network for first responders during which we will hear from first responders from commercial wireless carriers and from other interested parties of variety of proposals has been put forth for how do you block off the seven hundred megahertz spectrum should be utilized in meeting that goal and if you've given attention to this matter and have any thoughts you would like to share with us this morning about how we can assure that our nation has fully interoperable communications capabilities for first responders we would welcome those views we're having bipartisan discussions among our subcommittee members about an appropriate statutory reform of the federal universal service fund and i anticipate that a comprehensive reform measure  will be introduced by subcommittee members with bipartisan support in the very near future we have introduced with bipartisan support a measure designed to inventory the radio spectrum with the goal of the additional spectrum for commercial wireless services and later in this congress we intend to put forward legislation addressing broader needs with respect to wireless services and a measure extending a clearer of privacy rights to internet users and i expect that each of these measures will be constructed in a bipartisan process and be introduced with bipartisan participation in the views that you currently have on this range of matters and would care to express to us this morning we would be very happy to hear today's hearing is an opportunity for chairman genin koski and commission members to tell us about their agenda for upcoming efforts to enhance our nation's telecommunications capabilities and we very much look forward to your testimony and thank you for your time here with us this morning that concludes model statement i'm pleased now to recognize the ranking republican member of our subcommittee the gentleman from florida mr starr good morning and thank you mr chairman thank you for having this in very important hearing this subcommittee oversight of the f c c is one of it's obviously one of his primary we better understand perhaps what your priorities are and how we can all work together i also want to take this moment to thank commissioner baker for her work at the n t i a to make the d t v a coupon program work despite the communication sector has not been immune from the economic distress that's been faced by the country during the last year the goal should be to help the communication sector recover and frankly to encourage companies to invest in new facilities and equipment that will bring fast broadband connection faster to most americans the stimulus requires us to present congress with a national broadband plan by february seventeenth two thousand and ten for broadband to reach its full potential in this country and be a truly transformative factor in our county the commission must not undermine the climate it has helped create over the last two years that is encouraging massive private investment in broadband while many wring their hands over the o e c d ratings and rankings we are i think frankly doing very well the pew internet and american life project reports that sixty three percent of u s households have adopted broadband as of april two thousand and nine up from fifty three percent in may two thousand and eight by contrast the european commission says that only thirty six percent of the european union households have service from two thousand and one to two thousand and eight the f c c charted the right course for the broadband market employing a light regulatory touch to encourage this investment the result was the exponential growth in broadband subscribership and than with consumption but a reversal by the f c c of the current regulatory framework would greatly undermine investment at a rather in opportune time there's been some speculation about what new commission what the new commission is going to do about net neutrality regulations everybody wants the internet to remain open and accessible but many of us are concerned that adopting new policies involving net neutrality could impede network operators from bringing new internet based products and services that consumers want at this stage of the game when the internet is still evolving government intervention in the form of net neutrality regulation is both a necessary and anti consumer along with broadband the commission has opened multiple inquiries into the wireless industry the wireless sector is a great success story and one of the real bright spots in the otherwise challenge economy today more than ninety nine percent of the consumers have one or more choices in wireless carriers more than ninety five percent have three or more choices more than ninety percent have four more choices and almost sixty five percent have five or more choices today indeed the u s wireless market is a second least concentrated of all the twenty six nations so as a result wireless consumers today are paying less for better services in fact between one thousand nine hundred three and two thousand and eight the average local monthly bill has dropped from about fifty one  dollars from has dropped to fifty one dollars from one hundred one dollars in constant dollars during the same time frame the cost per minute has dropped to four cents from forty four cents from the average minutes of use has grown from hundred forty seven hundred  fifty eight of the most of any country now on the subject of spectrum hope the commission commissioners and members of the subcommittee will work closely to secure dish spectrum for commercial use as a recent press reports ha the explosive growth in demand for brand with as consumers access new applications and upload user generated content tax the limits of carriers capacity probably more quickly than most of us realize while advances in technology can help solve this problem by allowing for the more efficient use of spectrum policy makers will have to do our part by making more of this critical resource available many of our international trading partners are already taking steps to make additional spectrum available in their markets if we fail to do so we risk ceding our global leadership in wireless service and innovation so for this reason i urge my colleagues to support the bipartisan spectrum inventoried legislation which i hope we can act upon this year mr chairman as we can tell the f c c will be very busy in the coming year and next year as i look forward to hearing from our witnesses thank you thank you very much mr stearns the chairman of the full energy and co committee the gentleman from california mr waxman is recognized for five minutes thank you very much mr chairman i want to welcome the full f c c here for our very first oversight hearing and especially the new chair koski i'd like to join us thanking commissioner cops for his outstanding work as interim under his able leadership the digital television transition went well in the commission got back to business  thank you for your service and i'd like to thank you missioners mcdowell and baker for the important roles they played in the at the t v transition we're all aware of their commendable efforts to help improve the transition koski take the helm at a critical time in communications policy and i'm confident that you can continue commissioner cops work of getting the commission staff organized energized and focused on consumers i know that your colleagues at the commission about your collaborative leadership and your vision for the agency i'm pleased with the commission has already launched a comprehensive proceeding to craft a national broadband plan this is of immense importance to virtually every aspect of our society and how we will function in the twenty first century the success of your work will be essential to delivery of health care education to jobs economic growth the science of the arts to journalism and the media indeed your forthcoming national broadband plan is critical two americas calm competitiveness and leadership in the world of course any broadband plan must address issues related to wireless broadband including spectrum availability the committee has before it a bipartisan spectrum in the door a bill that would start the critical process of making more spectrum available for broadband services will play a critical role in this process and i'm confident that you understand the need to do so efficiently and quickly we also need to consider ways we might expedite the construction of the wireless facilities that are critical to broadband deployment this is an infrastructure issue that is critical to the successful deployment of broadband services simply put without additional facilities there will be no additional broadband and i'm particularly interested to learn internet a central plank in his communications policy platform and he has my full support the internet is a vital doorway to opportunity for many whether to distribute new content to develop a new application or simply to search for a new job we must ensure that the internet remains the engine of economic growth and technological innovation that helps propel our people and our economy forward the fears that profess that net neutrality rules will stifle that work investment have proven unfounded over the years most recently over twenty two hundred public and private entities applied for broadband grants and is so doing opted in to net neutrality rules industry will benefit from clarity consistency and predictability with regard to net neutrality as a member has worked hard to protect the intellectual property rights of our creative community i do not believe net neutrality and strong copyright protection are mutually exclusive goals in fact clear net neutrality rules should help broadband network operators explore innovative steps designed to stop the theft of online content i know that our new f c c chairman shares my perspective on the importance of achieving both goals for these reasons i think that the time is right to formally establish through legislation if required the rules of the road read respected neutrality accordingly i've asked mr markey to add me as a co sponsor to h r thirty four fifty eight the internet freedom preservation act and i will also continue to support chairman boucher's efforts to lead willing parties to a negotiated solution i also support the commission's effort to examine the state of competition in the wireless industry most agree that the best protection for consumers is robust competition and while i recognize the competitive nature of the wireless industry i do see some morning clouds on the horizon more specifically i believe the c should act soon to resolve problems with special access services and certain roaming arrangements i want to thank the commission for making public safety a top priority and initiating a study of the options for the d block we must act soon to improve the state of public safety communications and i'm anxious to review your plans and to work with you to ensure we find the most effective way for the public safety community is recognized for two and get away the gentleman from michigan waves his opening statement and will have two minutes added to his questioning time for our witnesses this morning the gentleman from illinois mr shimkus is recognized for two did working on a long time and you identified that it wasn't being promoted and you responded rapidly and that was on your own initiative not mine block is critical i've been in the nine one one emergency communications talking about the nationwide broadband deployment without having a nationwide broadband map is putting the cart before the horse so there are no i looked at the kentucky model and we think that's important and siting in towers we've got we've got to have a time when the debate stopped and we and we get our side especially in rural areas there is no wireless there is no a nine one one and in the end i want to thank the coalition of more than fifty public interest groups and civil rights groups for reminding me that the fairness doctrine is still part of the debate now i went to my staff went to the republican staff reefing nothing was talked about on the fairness doctrine but because these groups now have raised it there may be some debate on the fairness doctrine i think there's a congressional majority vote on the floor in opposition to re and instituting the fairness doctrine we're ready to continue to have those debates but it's just curious that we want to mention that had these groups not intervened and i yell back my time thank you very much mr because the gentleman from massachusetts mr markey is recognized for two minutes i thank the  for as he has for all these years as the author of the amendment requiring the development of a national broadband plan by next february i am particularly interested in the commission's progress in this area the national broadband plan is among the most significant things the commission will do since the implementation of the telecom act of one nine hundred ninety six and it is essential that we get it right i would emphasize the opportunity we have given is given to you and i urge you to dream big in terms of the plan you put together for our country give us a plan that speaks to our highest aspirations as a society not just to promote greater broadband availability of portability speeds of competition which we certainly need but also a plan that animates technology policy with ideas for addressing opportunity advancing better quality and more affordable health care and spurring great innovation to lessen our dependence on foreign oil through energy efficiency and smart grid technologies i will be proposing measures such as two point zero building upon my original conception  and congresswoman eshoo have always been focusing upon special access we have to ensure that we get that issue right introduce a bill on the video accessibility and and twenty first century communications that make sure that all consumers regardless of disability have access to all of these new technologies and i do believe that it's important for us to look at this handset exclusivity issue and one of the thing i just like to ad is nothing drives people crazy to buy a new phone from the same company and then you have to buy a charger for that new rather than having the old one that you've already purchased from that company work so can we do something about that that drives people crazy they just hate it so i would like to make that for you a special project out there because people wind up with all these chargers over a number of years and one of them was working very well thank you mr chairman thank you very much specifically do mr cliburn that her dad and i were together for one congress we talk virtually every single day of that congress and he's a good friend of mine and i look forward to doing what i can to be helpful to you and the other commissioners and we're glad to have all of you here today important work it's worked really hard to anticipate the changes that will occur talking earlier today about a telecom bill that we worked on just a few years ago by the time we got to the end of that particular piece of legislation it seems to me that nothing we debated at the beginning of the legislation still mattered by the time we were five years beyond that debate and that's the that's the world that you live in and have to work with it's a dynamic area competitive the ingenuity the entrepreneur the competitive spirit in telecommunications has made a big difference there the ability of network managers to allow for efficient flow of traffic and that we don't undermine the ability of private sector to get the funding and investment that they've grown accustomed to a second i want to join  before you move forward with any kind of implementation the other component of that is broad broadband does result in jobs and if companies are not able to control their attention on a couple of areas specifically the commission will be to offer its insights on competition in the special access market this is a particular important stakeholders in the telecommunications industry and the matter is now pending before your commission i look forward to working with the commission with my colleagues on the committee and with the various stakeholders to find a  analyze the proposals and i want to understand what your thinking is in terms of how those periods are determined now our country faces some important challenges of important personal interest to me  cyber security regarding cyber security we now face some very big challenges and very great exposure both in economics and in national security of that  prompts me to urge you to move forward aggressively in that in that area of cybersecurity and as we hear from the other issues i'm confident we can work together to find solutions that make a lot of sense for everyone i would recommend that the commission start by restoring transparency and public faith in the commission as are two veteran commissioners know in the past the commission is tended operate if not exactly in the dark they've certainly  been very opaque and sunlight and transparency is a good thing in democracy and it's certainly a good thing in the regulatory agencies and the commission in the past has failed to publish the specific text of its propose rules is provided little time or very little time for public comment it's taken too long to adopt decisions and it has sometimes taken even months to release the text of the specific item because of this and other reasons congressman stearns and i have introduced h r twenty one eighty three that would address those issues obviously that's not a perfect bill and we welcome any insights that commissioner has commission has in terms of how to make it better broadband policy is something that the new chairman has said is a personal interest of his and my understanding is that there's a new broadband policy that's being drafted or prepared as we speak that's required by the stimulus package keep in mind that the state of broadband adopted united states is actually better at least in my opinion than those that allege it is not self serving interest in terms of getting more regulation or more public dollars or whatever many will cite the organizations for economic cooperation developments quine that the u s ranks fifteenth in broadband adoption this report has been thoroughly discredited for among other things calculating penetration per person per household and it also ignores connections as we all know  united states is one of the most wirelessly connected nations in the world broadband adoption united states has been rapid considering the size and geographic diversity of our country the pew internet and american life project report sixty three percent of u s households have adopted broadband as of april two thousand and nine which is up fifty three from fifty three percent in may of two thousand and by contrast the european commission says in only thirty six percent of the european union households have service i think we're in better shape than we give ourselves credit for i think that our growth has resulted from a deregulatory approach we've taken towards these advanced services i know there may be some disagreement among our new commissioners but i think the last thing that we should do is to return to an old discredited monopoly era regulation regulatory approach such as for sharing of network infrastructure and mandatory baker had something to do with that at our previous post and commissioner cliburn impact on that down in south carolina and of course our two current commissioners were very involved in that and the chairman has  from georgia mr deal is recognized for thank you welcome to all the commissioners here today as you hear from these opening comments that in the case of the diversity of the issues before you and i appreciate that i want to focus and i will do so in my questions on one specific area that continues to be a problem that i think is growing larger every day and that is the issue of content contracts coupled with the licensing that is under your jurisdiction in the broad general scope of things in the marketplace we all generally talk about that in terms of retransmission consent authority i am now growing more concerned about that same problem in the right market and my question later on to you will focus on that as i have what is happening in my state more licenses are being granted for radio stations based on so called being here today and i look forward to getting to know the newer commissioners welcome mr markey challenge dream big i just hope you're not dreaming big government intrusion and i hope that you look at issue with the notion to encourage our certainly that we're concerned about the fairness doctrine broadband i mean there is a way that we can do this to encourage private investment like we've never seen before and it is in your hands to do that and i hope that's the call that you'll take and what is a standard decorum of government involvement in the media that's very very concerning to me and i know many on this committee and will be watching closely to make sure that the f c c provides a level of certainty in things like special access and broadband plan that allows the private sector to invest in with certainty the quicker the better with certainty we will have a very competitive broadband plan for the united states as well as a free and open media that we all have grown to understand and respect and so with that i have a statement mr chairman for the record and i look forward to have the opportunity  the f c c has a central role to play and moving our economy forward and creating jobs by expanding broadband across access across the country to help close the digital divide for millions of hardworking families we must also address your for ability our broadband services as more households have greater access to the internet that is why i will soon be introducing legislation that will expand the universal service on life line assistance program for universal broadband adoption to help more lower income americans living in urban and rural areas and subscribing to affordable broadband services i'm also particularly interested to hear how the national broadband includes household schools libraries health facilities among others in urban under served communities achieve greater access to broadband services i'm also interested in hearing how the commission plans to address public safety issues so that agencies local law enforcement and house those better communicate during emergencies and on the issue of special access the commission should soon update the data needed to dahlia weight the level of competition in the marketplace spectrum available today will be key to increased competition improving state public safety and to encourage new and innovative services i'm looking forward to working with my colleagues and the commission on all of these important issues moving forward and i thank the chairman for holding this important hearing today and i yield back the balance of my time thank you very much the gentleman from appreciation for their testimony here i'm anxious to hear it and my own remarks relatively brief the f c c has played and continues to play a vitally important role as our technology and capabilities have advanced i look forward to learning more about the priorities of the agency and how we can work together my particular evidence emphasis however is on ensuring that the market is as competitive as humanly possible i quite frankly i think there is always a danger of overregulation in these areas and that consumers benefit by regulation which sets the level of control that have an ability to ensure that there is real competition because i believe real competition  benefits consumers and that's after all who i think i'm here with a duty to represent i look forward to your discussion of each of the issues but in particular to the issue of special access on the special access proceeding it seems to me that that proceeding has drug on too long that we need to get the information and get the decisions made and we need to make sure that those decisions are made in a way that we benefit consumers so that they can have the most choice and the most option i think it is critical that action on that proceeding occur as quickly as possible i join my friend mr shimkus in noting that my staff didn't talk to me about the fairness doctrine but since it is being discussed by those who would like to see a new fairness doctrine i'm happy to make it clear that i think that is the prerogative of the congress and i would not be happy to see any other administrative inference in that area i hope this is the first of many hearings between our committee and you all on how we can improve our communication system in the nation and make it as efficient as humanly possible and from i'm at brenda's mister so left mr markey i would suggest that perhaps for telephone chargers we need a public option so that people can go somewhere and buy from the government  policy i welcome the new members who have been recently appointed to the commission and i introduced myself as a new member of the committee and was tremendous i think as we've got people on this committee who share your common goal to work together because if we're going to build a national kind of me and strengthen it we're going to have to have absolutely best telecommunications policy in the world so i wish you good luck and i will enjoy working with you for proud that you're going to be leading the commission to the two commissioners that are the mainstays from the previous commission we thank you and salute you and certainly to commissioner top  i think that you've just been a force of nature in terms of what you've done and what you went out all over the country to speak to the public interest and for your magnificent work as the acting director thank you to you we are we're all grateful to you and very very proud of you commissioner mcdowell it's it's always a pleasure and a privilege to work with you and to the two new commissioners two women on the commission how proud we are of you and what you bring to the commission is nothing short of extraordinary i think putting all of that together we have the opportunity to have a commission that really is going to be a twenty first century commission and  we need to seize the opportunities and really shape our collective destiny when it comes to telecommunications and there are so many opportunities to do that so we all want to work with you in order to accomplish that i think that the f c c needs to be able to anticipate change understand and identify the changes that are going to define us as a country we need to complete rule making in a timely manner that keep abreast of industry dynamics i think the f c c needs the structure and the financing to accomplish these goals and you need to tell us how you think  what you need in order to make this happen i think that you're all aware of what my guiding principles are behind my concerns about commission policy i want to see a competitive competitive environment that encourages innovation and business development not a world where big fish little fish i'm tired of that and i don't think it's gotten us very far i want to know how you plan to nurture a healthy competitive environment  might not be in that at all if people can't receive broadband i mean i think it's as simple as that so i actively support modern broadband standards that will guarantee equal access for this really highly essential resource for everyone in our country and we need high speed that rank with world standards we should be starting with the slowest and then working our way up it'll be the twenty second century and there will be a longer list of countries that are ahead of us so welcome to the new commissioners thank you to the two that have really held down the fort to each one of you i looked genuinely look forward coming forward today to have this conversation with us working with each one of you today i'm looking forward to hearing about the progress of the national broadband plan that congress required as part of the recovery act it is my hope that the plan will be sufficient to ensure that that areas with little or no access to the crew service be given priority many of the communities that i represent are without very basic broadband and our decades behind better connected areas of our country the global economy demands access to broadband and i stand ready to assist each one of you in expanding broadband access to under an unserved areas we had a great debate in this committee about the definition of those two terms and so we have delegated it to you and hopefully we will get a common sense approach to this issue i've also have a keen interest in the transition the transition has been largely successful and has freed up valuable valuable then with that will be used by first responders to better communicate with one another however many of my constituents in north carolina have been adversely affected by the transition they are unable to access television programming using an over the air signal prior to the transition date i wrote to the commission to make them aware of the potential for a complete loss of service to certain households that was television signals over the air but unfortunately nothing was done to mitigate the signal  loss required new power would antenna to receive the digital signal for many families in my district a new antenna costing several hundred dollars was not a viable option on june eleventh i introduced the transition assistance act the utilize remaining money from the converter box coupon program to establish a television antenna on program to be used by those households that lost their signal due to the transition there are many other issues that i hope to discuss with the commission is as time goes on including net neutrality and the other issues that we've heard mentioned today again thank you for coming i look forward to working with you back thank you mr butterfield the gentleman from illinois mr rush is recognized for two minutes rural appalachian ohio in which many thousands of my constituents lack access to both broadband and the tremendous benefits that can be derived through it be they have an economic nature or quality of life nature such as health care and educational opportunities that we're missing out on right now because we don't have anything close to universal access to broadband last congress i introduced the connect the nation act to provide grants to public private partnerships selected by states to work on the point broadband technology early this year i pushed house leadership to include funds for broadband expansion in the recovery act in the spring i work with countless stakeholders in and around my district to develop an ambitious connecting appalachian plan to provide broadband access of thirty four unserved counties in ohio and then following the release of a g a o report on actions undertaken by the federal government to encourage broadband plame and i join chairman waxman and chairman about your in writing then acting chairman cops to highlight the areas of interest including the findings regarding remaining gaps in broadband coverage in rural areas i say all this not to  highlight my own personal compliments but to point out that a while eighteen is the face of the remaining need in this country and we are also an example of the way forward decent hard working men and women of rural while cannot wait any longer for is recognized thank you i just just look forward to this discussion really impressed with some of the things a commission is doing and look for discussion about our interrelated issues of white spaces and license spectrum and how we move the auction process forward i think we have more work to do we've got some progress but we have been waiting five years to complete this year and look forward to your comments and how we can move forward on the matter thank you mr inslee the gentleman from new york to all of you i can see that we all do want to get past those things i want to particularly welcome the new chairman someone who i think comes to the job with perhaps a collection of experiences and a background that makes him more equipped than perhaps any other someone who is innovative in the private sector some of work here on capitol hill is a close relationship with the president and someone that had his name is pronounced seven times in the senate confirmation hearings i want to thank chairman doyle is recognized for two minutes thank you mr chairman good morning and welcome to the commission first let me also thank commissioner cops for his outstanding services interim chairman of the commission and someone that i've certainly been pleased to work with over the years and and i also want to commend commissioner baker for her work and and to our new commissioner well we're we're happy to see on board i want to associate myself with comments from chairman waxman and chairman boucher and former chairman markey on the critical importance on broadband in their views on wireless competition i heard mr markey story about cell phone chargers and you know the you brought together all the device makers and regulators and work with the industry to solve this consumer complaint they settled on a micro u s standard i would hope that american carriers and device makers would follow that policy and we don't need to wait for the f c c to for some action to address this consumer complaint i want to tell you with the light when the f c c came to pittsburgh in two thousand and seven to discuss and learn more about the future of broadband i think we all learn more when we leave washington d c and get out in the field and talk to real people and chairman jenna coffee i'd like to encourage your staff and those working on the broadband plan to review the record of the pittsburgh field hearing several witnesses who gave real world experience of promoting broadband adoption and low income urban communities and how innovators are are limited from using s m s text messaging to reach young people when people get left further behind when they're not connected to a critical network like the internet i've also noticed that the c has hired a lot of people from inside and outside the beltway they picked a lot of folks with practical real world experience they've been able to attract many people with important backgrounds in the private and public sector i think  thing number of them have testified before our subcommittee on communications and technology issues i don't always agree with everything that they testified to us but i respect their intelligence i admire their commitment in seeking facts and data that commissioner that's who we should be talking to and about and i look forward mr chairman during the question and answer period to have some questions for new commissioners thank you very much mr doyle you have now heard from us and we look forward  at this time to hearing from you and we are very fortunate to have before us this morning and thank you for your attendance the five members of the federal communications commission without objection your prepared written statements will be made a part of our record we would welcome your oral summaries and what i ask that you keep those within a reasonable time frame so that we have time remaining to pose questions to you and we'll be pleased to begin this morning by welcoming the new chairman of the federal communications commission mr julius genachowski and we would be very pleased to have your statement at this time and we need you to turn your microphone on the first t all witnesses have to learn in the technology subcommittee thank you mr chairman ranking member stearns member of the subcommittee it's a particular pleasure for me to be here in the house of representatives where twenty five years ago  i started by career when a young congressman took a chance on someone out of college it's a privilege now to be chairing the commission and to work with such an exceptional team of commissioners i have the highest regard for each of my colleagues commissioner cops commissioner mcdowell commissioner cliburn and baker i believe some of the members have recognized the public owes a debt of gratitude to commissioner cops and then acting chairman and commissioner mcdowell for their excellent work on the transition while as we've heard issues remain more work needs to be done there is no question that the role to date has been a success both commissioner cliburn and commissioner baker bring first experience to the f c c and track records of real accomplishment it's wonderful to have a full team up and running at the f c c i'm confident that together we can make the f c c an agency that works for all americans why arrived at the f c c only a couple of months ago i've tried to hit the ground running seeking to revitalize and retool the agency begun by articulating strategic principles that include fostering investment and innovation promoting competition protecting and empowering consumers children and families these principles require work in a number of important areas developing a national broadband strategy unleashing spectrum so that the u s can lead the world in mobile helping deliver state of the art public safety communications networks for our country promoting a vibrant media landscape in the twenty first century that serve the public and reforming the f c c itself that it so that it can become a model for excellence in government i have detail in my written remarks on these topics let me summarize them here first the national broadband plan have been working hard on broadband which i believe is our generation's major infrastructure challenge robust open affordable broadband can be our platform for sustainable economic growth and opportunity for all americans in april under then acting chairman cops leadership the commission began the effort to develop a national broadband plan mandated by congress in july as part of my first commission meeting we heard a work plan for meeting our february deadline which is coming up very quickly in developing the national broadband plan the f c c is conducting a data driven process with unparalleled opportunities for public participation through public workshops requests for comment on concrete questions the use of new media and technology including web site broadband dot gov a new blog blog band idea scale and other platforms for public participation where the very early stages of this work the battles of americans have already connected to the f c c learning about the commission's work and offering real and substantive comments which we're incorporating into the record we're using these and other tools to reach out beyond the beltway to all americans individuals and businesses because all americans are stakeholders in the broadband plan second the commission in august approved notices of inquiry that addressed the key topics of innovation investment competition and consumers our wireless innovation and investment notice of inquiry focuses on the commission's particular responsibility for managing spectrum unique and scarce national resource it recognizes the vital importance of innovators and entrepreneurs to the work of the f c c and seeks input and ideas for how the f c c can best maximize investment and innovation in the mobile industry it asks is there anything the commission should do that it's not doing to promote investment in innovation is there anything the commission is doing that it shouldn't do where that would better promote innovation investment the goal of the wireless competition notice of inquiry which we also approved is to build a solid analytic foundation for predictable competition policy in the wireless sector and the goal of the consumer information and disclosure that we approved last month is to allow the commission to assess whether consumers have adequate information to make informed buying decisions these notices reflect the importance of mobile there's been strong innovation in the wireless sector that's the good news i believe the us has the opportunity to lead the world in mobile i believe we also have some real challenges in the space including those mentioned by some members of the committee  we're facing a real demand crunch when it comes to spectrum i'd like to next take this opportunity to reconfirm my strong commitment to public safety public safety in iraq for ability as a vitally important issue for the commission and the commission staff is actively evaluating proposals addressing mission critical voice communications and broadband capability for our nation's first responders on my first day on the job i requested a top to bottom or of the agency state of readiness for major public emergencies admiral jamie barnett our new leader of our public safety and homeland security bureau led that review we released the results of the review and they are summarized in my written statement the bottom line the review confirms that the f c c stands ready to respond to communications emergencies but the report also reminds us that the agency must continuously strive to maximize its readiness to ensure that it is prepared to meet its vital mission in the digital age and to work toward helping our country's first responders deploy twenty first century technologies in support of their operational along with starting work in our strategic priorities we're also working toward the f c c becoming a model for excellence in government one of my first access chairman was to appoint a universally respected senior staffer a special counsel for f c c reform she's working alongside our new managing director who has fifteen years of very relevant experience in the private sector our new general counsel and our director of strategic planning on f c c reform they're looking at all ideas to improve the operations and prophecies of the f c c to achieve the goals that i've laid out having the f c c become a model for excellence in government a model information agency for the communications age our reform agenda is extensive highlights include a careful review of f c c processes and examination of the commission's data collection analysis and dissemination licensing comment and complaint filing systems modernizing our information instruct infrastructure and our financial operations and i will say that i've learned a few things during my brief tenure so far as chairman for one repeating relentlessly is sometimes necessary many of s and i state again i do not support reinstatement of the fairness doctrine either through the front door or the back door i believe deeply in the first amendment and oppose any effort to censor impose speech on the basis of political viewpoint or opinion now finally while i have not had the opportunity to meet individually with all members of the committee yet i hope to do so i have had the privilege to meet with many of those conversations in those meetings have been constructive i was happy example of small businesses using broadband to grow create jobs all over the country and we reached out to blue valley meets in connection with our broadband process congressman walden when i met with him suggested that we do something that i thought was just a great idea that we get our media bureau staff and sit down with broadcast engineers and see what kind of ideas we could generate to better improve the process that has happened and it's resulting in some concrete actions i spent time with congressman eshoo at a hospital in palo alto where we saw some of what brought broadband can offer an incredible use of technology imaging technology and broad man around remote diagnostics that allow for diagnosing a newborn  with a disease that causes blindness in a way that needs to be available to all americans it's available in palo alto it should be available everywhere those are the kinds of things we're thinking about in connection with our broadband plan let me let me stop there these are but a few of the examples i look forward to more conversations with each of you in the months ahead and concrete actionable ideas that we can implement you can be assured that my goal for the is to be a resource to this committee to be guidance particularly during those five months plus that i was privileged to serve as a commissioned acting chairman earlier this year those were just incredibly busy and eventful dealing first and foremost with the d t b transition and also launching a truly historic proceeding growing out of the mandate from congress for the commission to develop a national broadband plan i am pleased that we were able to navigate through this period and i am credibly i am incredibly optimistic about the future of our new commission koski brings tremendous intellect experience and commitment to his job and he is off to a fine start in addition i tremendously value my relationship with my good friend and colleague commissioner robin dollar made a world of difference in the success program during those months while i was acting chair fellow commissioners may know cliburn unmerited baker on board each with very valuable well of and experiences and talents so i believe we are poised for major progress i also want to thank my friend a former colleague jonathan adelstein for his tremendous services commissioner over nearly seven years it seems strange not having him sitting here right beside me this morning with all the durham bus the three the three amigos hopefully we will and i think we're already on the way to becoming the five amigos of the commission i know jonathan will serve the public interest superbly as a new administrator of the world utility service my biggest banks of all go to the f c c team i have for eight years admire their skill the professionalism their dedication but seeing it up close as acting chairman seeing for example volunteers leaving their families to go across the country to help consumers get ready for the d t b transition or working nights and weekends to get other items ready for our consideration gave me a new appreciation for what public service means and what public this is giving them the room they need to accomplish their task was one of the things i tried really hard to do as acting chair for me our current involvement in broadband as a dream come true for eight years i advocated everywhere i could for a national broadband strategy to get this essential infrastructure out to all of our citizens i see broadband as our country's great enabler it is part of the answer to just about every challenge we confront as a nation lost jobs shortfalls in education energy dependence environmental degradation inadequate health care delivery and the list goes on this is the twenty first century's great infrastructure challenge comparable to the challenges earlier generations confronted to build enabling infrastructures like turnpikes and roads and bridges and isles highways rural electricity and then even telephone service now it is broadband turn to help build renewed prosperity by opening the doors of opportunity for all americans no matter who they are no matter where they live no matter what the particular circumstances are of their individual lives enable broadband and we enable the citizens of this great country just as sweet music to my ears was a designation of the f c c to be the epicenter for the development of this plan i am pleased that the commission was able to launch a comprehensive broadband notice of inquiry this past april and i am greatly encouraged by chairman john mcafee's commitment to an open and transparent and data driven bob process really unprecedented in the history of the commission and i see exactly this kind of outreach and openness that we need in everything we do so i hope and i believe that this broadband proceeding will serve as a model for future proceedings in the way we achieve maximum civic engagement with traditional and nontraditional stakeholders alike that's the way we should do business all the time there is much more to be done on top of broadband while the bulk of the d t b transition is behind us there is still work to be done with consumers and stations alike we are doing that work the additional time and resources provided by congress made a world of difference in reducing the number of problems we would otherwise have encountered in the private sector public sector cooperation that we were able to develop here  together and it's absolutely essential as we look now to develop a broadband plan to have that kind of partnership that's what we grew the in this country of ours and built to last really i come back as i always do to the country's media environment now is the time to pay serious attention we are alive for example so heavily on our broadcast media for so much of the news we must pay for emergency and public safety information for public affairs programming is central to our civic dialogue and for programming the supports the health and welfare of our children and reflects the social and cultural diversity that comprises the great tapestry that is the united states of america we have not been in my mind sufficiently attentive to this now with all the new digital t v capacity at our disposal broadcasting its capacity to develop such programming is orders of magnitude larger than it used to be stations can now broadcast four or five or even more programs streams using the same amount of they used to transmit just one stream in analog what an opportunity for broadcasters whose strength is local to develop programs reflecting local cultures and all the rest a few of them are taking advantage of their new capacity times are tough we all know that but recovery will come broadcasting doesn't need to play to its strengths and local is its strength and its future can be truly bright and i am convinced that its future is bright our country is also awakening to the realization that there is a crisis in journalism or go the means of distribution broadcast newspaper cable the internet news gathering a news dissemination expenses are being cut to the bone investigative journalism is too often falling by the wayside and these constraints are endangering i believe the vibrancy of the civic dialogue and what democracy depends new media is developing more will come but traditional media resists we can't focus on one to the neglect of the other because we need solutions in both areas now recently the legendary walter cronkite one of my good fortunes after i came to the commission was to get to know this wise man and we had numerous discussions about the deepening crisis in journalism and the urgent need to tackle this problem as he once said quote america is the most prosperous and powerful nation and perhaps the  world we can certainly afford to sustain a media system of which we can be proud of and quote i look forward to working with the subcommittee on this issue as well thank you again for inviting us here this is i think perhaps the most baker as well as my veteran amigo with these new commissioners and new leadership we have a perfect opportunity to rebuild as we address the myriad communications and economic policy challenges facing america for some time now i've been calling for reform of the commission structures and processes to help spark discussion and progress i wrote open letters outlining reform ideas to both acting chairman cop in january and account in july and one of my letters is a part of my written statement on the record first and foremost should be a more open and collaborative place where all commissioners are included in the idea formulation process early on and not just twenty one days before the voting deadline both acting chairman cops and chairman joining koski have taken significant steps to enhance information flow and improve employee morale and they should be commended for their efforts tremendous amount of reform work remains to be done however i look forward to working with all the stakeholders on this important endeavor specially members of this subcommittee and for many as we move forward i cannot think  important time to be even though the american economy has been shrinking overall our communications marketplace is vibrant evolving and growing consumers have more choices among more communications technologies services and providers than ever before for instance one hundred fifty seven million americans watched more than twenty one billion online videos during the month of july alone a figure that is growing at a double digit rate consumers are watching those videos on an increasing number of platforms as well most notably wireless three years ago the discussion of a wireless only marketplace was just beginning today nearly one in five american households is wireless only in fact i'd like to point out that my wireline legal adviser nick alexander his household america's wireless broadband market is leading the world by growing more than four hundred percent over the past three years additionally america has the fastest growing fiber to the home market in the world with an annual growth rate of over one hundred  twenty percent five years ago less than one percent of american homes had access to fire today that figure stands at thirteen percent since the year two thousand the number of high speed lines in america has increased more than nine hundred percent for approximately six point eight million connections at the end of the year two thousand and two almost one hundred thirty three million lines nearly nine years later to grow that number further american businesses will spend up to eighty billion dollars on new broadband infrastructure this year alone and i know that this is a terrible year to be investing in capital expenditures certainly our communications marketplace is far from perfect and more must be done as we prepare our congressionally mandated national broadband plan however we should not just examine our shortcomings but we should learn from what we have done right as well the information communications technology sector is poised to lead our country out of the recession and into an era of sustained economic prosperity higher paying jobs and untold consumer benefits if if the government does not adopt policies that inhibit economic freedom and investment america's year over year private sector investment in broadband dwarfs any government funded broadband effort throughout the globe in recent years the commission has promised that new broadband technologies would come to fruition as a result of our actions to put into the hands of consumers the power of previously unavailable spectrum such as the seven hundred megahertz band market players both large and small will need even more capital to build out the infrastructure needed to make that promise a reality with this fact in mind whatever policies we adopt should help attract more private sector capital and not deter it as the broadband plan takes shape it is my hope that the plan will not take a heavy handed top down command and control industrial policy approach instead i hope that it will be imaginative pragmatic like civil and the next step in an open and iterative process that will help that will make helping unserved america its top priority our policies should encourage abundance and competition to give consumers more choices life changing innovations and lower prices all while obviating the need for regulation and rationing if we are truly committed to being data driven and avoid cherry picking data to justify a pre determined outcome we can produce a useful template to produce constructive public policy in addition to reform and the broadband plan the commission faces a number of other challenges we are confronted with a sky rocketing universal service cost structure that is unsustainable more than one point three million broadcast indecency complaints some of which literally are older than my children lie ossify at our agency the communications act requires us to review our rules governing media ownership again next year and during that review as with all of our endeavors we must be faithful to first amendment and defend the freedom of speech we still have work to do to ensure technologies that operate in the unused television white spaces can come to market and into the hands of consumers as quickly as possible likewise we must work with congress to devise a solution for resolving the communications challenges faced by our nation emergency response providers and the list goes on but in conclusion america's i c t sector is at a critical juncture our technological and economic future could be brilliant policy makers have the courage to  and a closer look is warranted as part of redoubling our consumer efforts i believe we must also increase our assess ability and transparency to the public by fostering greater participation and awareness for national priorities on the traditional communications to such areas about which the members of this committee are intimately familiar energy and health here when it comes to thinking about the intersection between broadband and energy policy the conversation begins with the smart grid if we take seriously the notion of energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions we must develop a grid capable of accommodating renewable  as a significant portion of our energy generation makes broadband must account for the continued development and growth of this technology broadband policy also has the potential to transform the way health care is delivered in this country in order to develop a plan that incorporates innovative mechanism in quality health care we must first understand the infrastructure requirements diversity in media ownership we need to have an accurate diagnosis and to do that we need credible reliable and complete data we don't have that now and  and this committee as we develop the most effective telecommunications policies possible american people are relying on all of us to work cooperatively to ensure that they are being provided the widest array of services at the highest quality and the best prices thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and i look forward to answering your question thank you very much commissioner clobbered with commissioner berger a good morning still morning for another fifteen minutes chairman boucher ranking member stearns and very distinguished members of this committee it's really exciting to be here today and i'm very grateful for your kind words about my ten e i really hope to bring that experience to enhance all of our experience at the f c c so during my first six weeks at the commission i have had the opportunity to meet the various bureaus in the offices and i have been greatly impressed by the agency and the depth and the talent and the dedication of the staff as we really face on president challenged is of the significant issues before us chairman account he gave a inspirational speech to the f c c staff on his first day and he stated that the promise of technology has never been brighter and consequently the obligations of the commission have never been greater and i share that view the f c c holds the keys to unleashing the power of broadband the new media landscape and true public safety in or operability this responsibility is challenging but the rewards will truly make a difference in the life and future of every american according to one metric the communications industry constitutes one sixth of our economy and is the foundation upon the rest of it runs a twenty six first century communications infrastructure is essential for restoring sustained economic growth opportunity and prosperity congress has instructed the f c c to develop and implement a national broadband plan this directive holds great promise for our nation and as you have heard we are hard at work on it broadband has become critical infrastructure the enabling technology from everything from the future of our children's education to the next generation of health care smart energy grid development and again true public safety in our operability the f c c will play a very important role in making sure that the right regulatory environment exists to create incentives for companies to build out this infrastructure faster to reward innovation and investment and to encourage competition so that american consumers have access to and can afford the world's most advanced telecommunications service yes we are gathering the data to ensure that our recommendations are well informed i believe that we can reap great benefits from a more efficient transparent and flexible spectrum policy the spectrum inventory bill introduced in co sponsored by so many of the members of this subcommittee shows important leadership and is a first step to increasing wireless broadband use in innovative ways such as secondary markets leasing and testbed as many of you know me from my previous position and i think it is critical to pursue policies that foster the efficient use of spectrum to promote the continued innovation and investment in the wireless marketplace we plan to take a hard look at the means and tools to maximize spectral efficiency and to oppen that optimize the use of the country's bandwidth i am pleased that the first vote i cast at the commission was to see what else we can do to promote innovation in the wireless sector further this afternoon we will have a broadband workshop on spectrum and on monday i will host our first field hearing for the national broadband plan a spectrum hearing in austin texas it's imperative that we lay the foundation for wireless the fastest growing sector of america's broadband economy to continue to flourish during the past weeks i have had the pleasure of meeting with many of the members of this committee and it's a very talented and dedicated group i want to thank you for taking the time to out of your business to busy schedules to visit with me and share thoughts on the communications policy and the future of the  learned a great deal about your respective views and the range of issues that you face in your district i look forward to continuing our dialogue and working together for the benefit of american consumers the f c c has a profound impact te as our society continues to experience technological advancement in the communications i take this responsibility very seriously while working to promote the principles of investment innovation and competition for the benefit of all americans in conclusion it's a true honor to be serving at this time with my four colleagues sitting with me at the table and with wealth of experience and expertise i too would like to add my voice extraordinary impact on the everyday lives of the american people thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you and i look forward to answering your question thank you very much commissioner baker and subcommittees thanks to each of our commission members for your very thoughtfully prepared comments here this morning and for the time that you've taken to have this conversation with us i want to begin by complimenting each of you on what i perceive to be an outstanding bipartisan dialogue among you and a determination to work effectively together in order to advance telecommunications policy and my personal view is that is the way that the best policy is made and it's a practice that continually attempt to pursue here on the subcommittee as well chairman john accounts you begin to draft your broadband plan i want to draw your attention to two areas with regard to which states presumably we would have fiber optic connections to every library in this country once your plan has been fully implemented libraries are an intellectual hub they are a how many communities across our country they typically offer computers with broadband and free internet access and hundreds of people in the typical community will receive their free internet access by virtue of that offering at the local public library they also offer their own content through their websites and many of those areas of of content involved full motion video which of course requires large bandwidth in order to deliver ads when you have a broadband ally and extending them to a library of very high capacity lines that line can then be a jumping off point for last mile applications for residents and businesses located between the library and the central switching office where that fiber connection terminate and so there really are a range of community benefits that are advanced when we have truly high capacity broadband access extending into the public library and i hope that you will have due regard for that as your  land is developed i'm going to ask for your comments on that one other issue related to broadband and i'll just ask for your comments on both of these and ones as our colleague mr butterfield indicated you're going to be devising definitions for under served areas and under served areas across the country and i people be extraordinarily careful particularly in the definition of what is served we have some experience with the existing community connect programs that's administered by the rural utilities service at the u s department of agriculture and it's a very small program it's effect where it's deployed but it's very small and perhaps because of its small size there's some to suss city to be quite conservative in the definitions of the areas that will qualify but one of their definitions of conservative as to disqualify areas that in my personal opinion are really worthy of service they define unserved as an area that has absolutely no broadband access to any was in the community so if a single residence of the community has broadband extending into the home the entire community is deemed to be served even though no one else in the community has access to broadband that's an unusually and i think far too severe restriction and i would hope that you would keep that example in mind as you're defining a defining what served means if there are parts of the community that lack broadband of those parts should be deemed to be served in whatever definition you craft i want to comment on the notion of under served also in my view if there is a single provider in a community has the benefit of competition is not provided in that community that community should be deemed to be under served if the data rates are unusually slow in that community if it's perhaps less than a megabit per second for download speed that in my view would answer the first thing i'd say is that all of those thoughts will be taken into account as we develop the national broadband strategy the structure of our work the way we've organized the staff  adoption affordability three national purpose broadband can help address so many of our national problems health care education energy etc as i've been in this job for a little while and as we've done the work on broadband we realize the overriding goal of the national broadband strategy as i understand it the goal of broadband access for all americans there are many challenges to address many problems to solve and the kinds of issues that  of which have come up in the context of the near term broadband grants are issues that we must get our arms around a connection with the longer term national broadband strategy with respect to libraries a couple of thoughts one of the  to look at different institutions from the one you mentioned schools or the libraries are also in the program and to say we see enormous benefit from connecting schools before we get to broadband and i think this is reflected in the statute that we've been asked to look at in connection with a national broadband strategy libraries have all the benefits that you spoke about schools health care facilities these all have both direct benefits because if  local institutions can be connected to broadband the obvious benefits to schools hospitals and then they also have these extra benefits that you mention that driving high speed internet to these institutions helps solve the last mile problem and other problems in the community both wired and wireless options i think you'll hear we heard in our workshops so far a strategic institutions encouraging us as we develop a national broadband strategy to think in part about what we can do to help ensure that strategic institutions in the u s have access to a robust pipe for exactly these reasons and i think you'll see that discussion below twenty one eighty three mr chairman this bill probably can be enacted by you without passing this bill and i'm not sure since we're in a minority we'll have any chance but i think the question for you is over the years i think both sides both republican democrat think there's been a lack of transparency on the base of the commission perhaps it has become opaque so we'd like to see you know publish specific text of proposed rules timely fashion allow public at least thirty days to file comments thirty days to file replies stablish deadlines and publishes decisions within thirty days after adoption i would like your ultimate better decision making at the f c c as i mentioned one of the first things that i did was appoint a very well respected special counsel for f c c reform who is leading this process and i've asked for the team that's working on it to take all of these ideas into account and we will transparency is incredibly important we've taken some steps as i've mentioned already probably the most important is the way that we run our broadband process through open these people are probably just saying the chairman just tell us what the procedures are so we can follow and we have these procedures in place so that we have a transparency so we can compete commissioner cops i guess the question is do you agree  failed to account the video competition to cable that comes from satellite phone companies i guess will you commit not to support regulatory innovation in today's a competitive market and  court told us i think that we need to continue to foster innovation i think generally as a principle i start with that markets work better than regulation and we need to make sure that we add all the intensive we can to the market as chairman i  benefit from policies to promote competition then the commission must act and i think we've seen over time that both are true and it depends on particular circumstances take my last question if i could mr chairman is dealing with more of a local  issue i have a community called palm in my congressional district and they have a cable company called cablevision of marin county and the problem is they can't terminate their cable service we have written to the f time it's very clear that the system is under pressure for a series of reasons relating to changes in the marketplace there are broader global issues that have to be addressed with us and then there are a series of issues of the sort you mention that come up in particular markets that we have to address  last it relates in an important way to broadband because we do need to move to a program that supports broadband i wish it were easy and we could move over it'll be difficult it's an area where we will be the commission will be working on it an important challenging i don't know if it's a catch twenty two or virtuous circle depending how you look at it if the government wants to communicate with my seventeen year old if the government wants to communicate with my parents don't try and this is a real challenge for government because we do have to reach people of right of ways when it comes to services in the way that people actually communicate one of the big benefits of pursuing universal broadband is that happen quickly but when it happens there are  tremendous potential cost savings for government because instead of communicating with people and providing services as we have to do both online and offline we can begin to provide more and better services online we can't do that until we really achieve  also would just say that until we get to that day when we have the capacity we have all these nontraditional stakeholders who don't know what's going on and don't have the resources to hire a lobbyist or a law firm  starnes and i were talking about a way that we might be able to facilitate the questioning of witnesses in the hope that perhaps we could finish our work here before these votes begin we have a large number of them pending and  may be an hour or more before the votes are completed and we were thinking that perhaps we could ask the members if they would be willing just to ask one question would that be satisfactory if anybody seriously object them go to lunch and then come back my concern is that i think many members may have scheduled for early afternoon and anticipation of the house adjourning for the week which we're going to be doing about one fully participate past the departure time of the congress for the adjournment to do so because we don't get the entire commission very often and there are there some new ideas i listen in my office to all the statements of the five minutes as well that's a preference and i agree with what the gentleman saying about the usual importance of this hearing as compared perhaps to some others we will proceed in regular order i think we've now consumed most of the time we have remaining  list of things i want to talk about and then let the commissioners primarily the chairman i want to talk about transparency i'd just say that i heard what mr kopp said i agree with him i would be happy to work with the commission to put together  do you have any thoughts share with the committee on what conditions if any if we try to re option the d block that's already failed one two points quickly mr barton one on transparency and f c c reform i look forward to working with you as part of our process to make sure that we have an f c c that is open transparent fair data driven and that really is the expert agency that benefits the entire country on spectrum quickly second there is a demand crunch coming we need to put more spectrum in the marketplace and the pipeline  what it needs to be and so i would welcome passage of the inventory bill and our role in that man's role in that i think we very important third with respect to the d block that is some spectrum that we can get on the market soon the challenge of the public safety component of it is real i'm focused on making sure that we get it right i don't want to rush into a failed auction but i also think we need to move quickly to address the issues commissioner  acting chairman caused the agency to begin work on it the agency has jumped into it the block of course comes up often in connection with our broadband plan so we don't have anything now in terms of what we will be looking at is that because the broadband plan i think is no later than february will have real options that we're looking at and considering because of the nature of the spectrum and its relationship to our national broadband strategy my last question deals with universal service reform i don't think it's any anybody who's followed this committee that i'm a big proponent of that the universal service fund continues to grow the costs continue to go up  the timetable will be similar no later connection with the national broadband strategy will we have options to look at policies to consider because broadband will be an important part of a discussion many people are raising including many on the committee some consensus but more work needs to be done to have universal service reform that works well for the country i know the committee is looking at this as well and will continue to be a resource for the committee as it does its work my last question you don't want to answer thank you very much mr barton the gentle lady from florida castor is recognized for five minutes well i certainly share the thought of several of my colleagues said we are in dire need of a spectrum inventory as of twelve twenty this afternoon on the seventeenth of the month there is nobody in the united states that has the foggiest idea of how much spectrum is being used  utilized and if it is being utilized being utilized twenty four hours a day ten seconds a day that we really need to to get a handle on this we need to make sure our auction system is working properly and is inviting  participation of small as well as large competitors we need to make sure that spectrum is being used and utilized and if it's not i think we ought to be looking at some alternatives for other uses of that spectrum let me have my  license these are a few of the things that i think we need to be concerned about but what i'm hearing from all of the folks testifying on the broadband workshops is in many ways this comes down to a question of is there a spectrum to do what we need to ws one auction in two thousand and six that's not yet built out we have a seven hundred megahertz auction the transition just happened we just had that auction last year that's not built out we have a lot of work to do in the television white space is all this is so we need to be careful also to be mindful that our spectral efficiency in this country doubles every two and a half years sort of tied to moore's law of computing so that since marconi transmission by radio for invention of the radio we're now two trillion times and i think there's an awful lot of things we can do an awful lot of ways we can work with our government partners as well i think the government also often hears government is inefficient but spends more money on r and d in this area than probably anyone else  don't believe that there is an effort that we need to pursue to regulate my two questions are these regardless of which position one might take on the issue of special access market all sides now seem to be asking the commission to collect data on the market and it seems to me that it is time to get the facts on the table especially before you begin to work on the broadband plan so mr chairman do you plan to collect special access data from the carriers and interested parties and if so when that's question number one interest time just as we deal with the challenges of the transition to digital we have a couple of areas i would presume around the country certainly in my district where it's seems like those challenges are a little bit high if we're able to accommodate perhaps a burst of additional power in the digital signal so that folks can get some of our local channels that may be at the at the very edge would be would be helpful i look forward to hearing from you in terms of how you're dealing with those special hopefully unique cases and i will do you do to respond on special access it is something that we are hearing a lot about from multiple parties the staff of the f c c has been working on the data issue for as long as i've been there we haven't decided whether we will need more data in order to reach a decision on special access so the next step here from us is our view on whether we have enough data to make a decision twenty to identify new issues can you share your thoughts on updating and refining the program to capitalize on broad we're looking as part of the broadband strategy in part because  congress told us to not only a deployment in adoption but also what the statute calls national purpose is how to make sure broadband services health care education energy the e rate has been such an extraordinary success let's leave the world in education whole country manage the wind and the solar coming in from the prairie and the desert you can't manage it coming in from the ocean you can't manage it coming up people's roofs you need the broadband telecommunications network solution to this we gotta let the market do that but i do agree with ed on the broadband deployment and the mapping issue and i'm always angry when we compare apples and oranges and we talk about the comparing european countries which are small i always talk about being in station in germany being able to drive across the entire country in three hours and i couldn't get statutory limitations on low power f m radio stations are contrary to the public interest and should be repealed i've introduced legislation h r eleven forty seven the local community radio act that will do just that we've already had a hearing  and it is my hope that our esteem chairman will allow us to proceed to a markup and pass this legislation soon i know that from the vote in two thousand and seven commissioner cops and mcdowell voted in the affirmative but we have three new commissioners so was just a simple yes or no from our three new commissioners do you also recommend that congress lift the restrictions on lp f m stations the so called third adjacent protection based on what i know ye have less than five minutes remaining to cast votes on the floor mr deal do you want to ask your questions i'd like very much to all right mr deal georgia football hangs in the balance recently the georgia athletic association entered into a ten year contract in atlanta ga they have also now apparently refused to enter into contract agreements with traditional radio stations and have for as long as sixty years in some cases been able to broadcast georgia football now the result of that is is that the f c c has approved the location and ready o stations from one small community into other for example now cox communications owns stations in athens georgia the home of the university of georgia they have located towers as a result of those consolidations and ownership of these other stations within sixty five miles  the existing broadcast station reach and as a result of that sixty five mile limitation which is in the on our contract the fact is that these historically broadcast stations have now been deprived of this ability to broadcast georgia football games now my question is does the f c c take into account any of these so called contract obligations that will infringe on existing broadcasters when you approve of a new license or a transfer of a license do you in fact look at what the effect of it is and in many instances is only that the town that is supposed to be the basis of the license the only time that they have any relevance is one every hour they announce their call letters and they use that town's name because nothing located in that town whatsoever that's my first question do you have the ability to look at those kind of tying agreements in broadcast content when you approve the location and the second one is is there any jurisdiction in the f c c to look at what might be considered unfair trade practices that might monopolize the public airwaves or is this something that is within the federal trade commission let me pledge to get back to you on the answers to some of the technical questions about c jurisdiction at a higher level you're raising issues about a changing media landscape competition in this new environment the importance of local broadcasting and the you know the real interests of consumers and viewers one of the things that i'm trying to make sure we do is to make sure that we have an f c c that smart about the marketplace smart about the consumer needs smart about viewer needs so let me let me die understand this is an important issue and we will follow up with you to understand it better and answer your questions about mr chairman could we be allowed to hearing it should not take very long after that hearing stand recess the subcommittee well come to water i want to thank the members of the f c c for their patience i'm sorry we were delayed a little bit longer than i had predicted that's usually the case but you have been very patient i hope you enjoyed lunch and welcome back the gentleman from oregon mr walden is next to be recognized and he is now recognized for five minutes both thank you mr chairman i want to thank the commissioners i enjoy getting to know some of you over the years some of you more recently and some of you i look forward to spending some time with and i appreciate the  we're seeing on display today your willingness to work together and together and i realize with many new members in leadership it is a new app i did not plan to get into this issue today but the letter that's come forward from a number of interest groups prompted me to do some research in the last twenty four hours and it's troubling what i've been reading regarding the gentleman who now is being given a special position at the commission head of diversity and special counsel position lloyd and it i was just reading a document from center for american progress where he outlines his various views article from july twenty fourth of two seven twenty two thousand and seven and you know i think i've shared with some of you my wife and i were in a small market radio ownership for nearly twenty two years my father helped put stations on the air back to the thirty's and believe very strongly in the responsibility of licensees serve their communities so when i read that this gentleman says that commercial broadcasters want to be trustees of public property but without responsibility i got to tell you i take offense to that and i don't think i've taken it out of context i don't know if it's written right here and some of the other that strongly opinionated person in a position is important that the f c c to me is always been a very professional organization that was the didn't go down this path and so i find this very offensive chairman you and i had a very good conversation about fairness doctrine you know my feelings on that i receive your your comments and i understand you're back in and i'm not putting them back in that it didn't work when it was there  out what his position is what his responsibilities are what we have an opportunity to question him before this committee at some point to really be supportive of that because i got to tell you i'm out of the business suggestions it relates to some of what the goals are with the staff of the in my opinion an expert agency needs to have a broad range of people with different backgrounds different expertise and we do we talked about some of those people  got together people from the business community a vibrant exchange of ideas internally i understand some of the concerns that you have and i can say a couple of things one is to the extent that there's a concern that the commission would engage in any censorship of broadcasters or anyone in the media on the basis of political views and opinions the answer is we won't amendment prohibits it won't happen to the extent that  there are concerns you've indicated about the commission not being aware of the economic conditions and challenges that broadcasters face i can assure you that anything the commission does would take those into  account the commission needs to understand what's going on with broadcasters similarly i appreciate your point about broadcasters acknowledging special responsibilities and i know so many broadcasters take that seriously provide very valuable service to the community americans value local news and information emergency alerts other emergency information traffic weather and so i actually think there's a lot of agreement around core principle s diversity is another area where for a very long time has been i think there still is a bipartisan consensus that it is an important objective  the other thing that i would want to make sure that you knew is that as i said before mark is not working on not working on fairness doctrine issues not working on censorship issues he's not working on these issues right working on opportunity issues primarily now around broadband adoption focusing on making sure that broadband is available to all americans so he's not me working on the broadcast license issues he's not working on those issues someone who is well think to take advantage of that offer to get to know him a little bit better every human being is a totality with a lot of different experiences and a lot of different ideas we work very closely with mr lloyd when he was here today and for the testimony that you provided and i can say that i have tremendous confidence in your ability to undertake the difficult challenges before you and make outstanding decisions and we all on the subcommittee look forward to our coordination with you as together we seek to advance american telecommunications policy we'll be having other hearings we will invite your attendance from time to time and you're an informal