Offer. All of us have a place in the american story. As long as i am president i will keep working to make sure every single one of us has a chance to succeed. We say you can. Thank you, everybody, and god bless. [applause] president obama leaves sunday night for a fiveday trip to europe and the middle east. Andonday, the netherlands the hague. He will be there for a discussion on keeping Nuclear Material out of the hands of terrorists sent he will attend a Nuclear Security summit on tuesday. The president will travel to brussels tuesday evening and wednesday will take part in the ee youu. S. Summit at the council of the european union. With thelso meet United Nations secretarygeneral anders fogh rasmussen. On thursday the president will meet with the francis at the vatican before wrapping up his trip in saudi arabia. Executives from verizon, comcast, and at t talked about the future of telecommunications and the upcoming spectrum auction. This is part of the free States Foundation the Free State Foundations daylong conference in washington, d c this is about an hour and a half. When commissioner cliburn n commended as for efficiency, i was not sure if she was talking about us. Everyone here is efficient and is right on time. I will accept that complement and get started right here in just a moment. I want to make sure everyone is miced up properly. Ok. Well, welcome to the first panel today. Of ourif there are any cspan audience has just joined us, i want to welcome you as well out there. I said earlier and i will confess any more about this i am an admitted cspan junkie of the firstorder. I am particularly glad to have cspan with us today. So, this is the panel that i panele Senior Executives , for good reason. Everyone sitting before you is a very Senior Executive area very Senior Executive. And we are going to do this in a very conversational format today. They know that as well. I am going to do my best, and i think i can do this, to prevent long filibusters and make sure we cover a lot of grounds. About that. You will all find out about there is a lot of ground really to cover today. To do is m going you have the brochures with you. Each member has a very distinguished bio. But i am not going to take the time to go through that. I am going to give you your titles. Theman bing them or google and find out a lot more. When i tell you what they are doing in their current positions, that will give you a sense of the expertise they bring to the table. Just in alphabetical order rebecca arbogast. Rebecca is Vice President him a policy at comcast. Sitting next to rebecca is james , the executive Vice President of the National Cable and telecommunications association. I should say james is filling in a bit for Michael Powell, who a few days ago informs me unexpectedly he had to be out of town. I appreciate james filling in. He has not had the two months the others have had to prepare. Nevertheless, i dont have any fear that the Cable Association is in good hands. Ext is jim cicconi jim is Senior Executive, Vice President , and external legislative affairs for at t. Is then sitting next to jim steve largent. Now, i am going to break my own rule here for just a moment. Really with regard to steve as many of you know in this , the steve has led Ctia Wireless Association for over 10 years. I think that is correct. Over 10 years. He announced a few months ago that he was stepping down to resume his football career, which he did not say he wanted to spend more time with his he is not going to resume his football career. Im not sure what he is going to do. Im anxious to find out when that happens. Whatever he does decide to do, steve will do it in the same way that he set records in the nfl, which got him into the nfl hall of fame, and in the same way. I think thetia record of success for the last wirelessth the industry sort of speaks for itself. I do not want to step on any of his answers that he might give. So, im going to leave it at that, steve. But were glad you are here. And the fact that you are stepping out does not mean that you will not have to come back in the future as well. I should say for those of you this very tom was on same panel and he was stepping down. I took the liberty i have known tom for long time just as i have known steve, commending tom for his work. Any of you guys are stepping down next year, i might do the same thing, but i cant make any promises. Are you going to talk about my nfl career . I will have to do some googling for that as well. I am going to have to check into that. That brings us indeed to Craig Sullivan, and he is the senior Vice President for Public Policy and Government Affairs at verizon. With that, welcome, distinguished panelists. To be throwingng questions at the panel. Not necessarily going to have to answer all of the questions. If you want to say something, you can let me know. For many of them, i will certainly welcome comments from all of them. The first question i am going to ask, and this will test and demonstrate my resolve to remain in control of the panel. The naturalow tendency. I have been there myself. Here is the question. From the perspective of your company or association, what should be the single most important priority for the commission, with the emphasis on single most . Im going to start with rebecca. Just go right down the row on this, and just, you know, take just a minute or two. Rebecca . All ofk you for inviting us here to have this conversation. I do think conversations are important. Im going to answer that quickly with a very Short Historical story that was triggered by an event a couple months ago where the digital pioneers thomas the folks at the fcc when i started their 100 years ago, were being honored for their foresight at the time they were developing policies when the internet was starting. Powell and bill snark, both of whom i work for, thathis wonderful approach was to stand back, let this new thing breathe and grow, and the way bill put it was, the hightech hippocratic oath. First do no harm. Then michael talks about the wings for some event and they talked about the term digital restraint. Heartook very close to the need to keep an eye on things, but to step back and let this thing grow and evolve, and they concluded that this approach was much as it was when bill pointed in 1999. You do not know when where things are going to go. That approach, which is in contrast with a lot of the European Countries has served in terms ofy well investment and innovation, and the single most important thing is to continue that trajectory thatemain faithful to historic park, because it is important for jobs and economic development. James, the single most important priority from your perspective . I dont get could say it much better than what rebecca did. My two words were going to be regulatory humility and its based upon that same notion. Energyad this tremendous in the last two decades because we recognize the constantly evolving and changing nature of the internet and internet technologies. We are not talking about something where we pour concrete and it hardens and that is where it is. Its just going to be that form and it is constantly changing. And we wanted to constantly change, because that is what toves innovation that leads providing all the new services that consumers enjoy. When we look back at the past two decades and where we were and where we are today, our biggest challenge or the biggest challenge for regulators , i think, is to continue to have that economic engine go forward. And as a record said, do no harm. Jim . I think it is the ip transition. And its not just because the fcc is challenged with navigating the technological change successfully. I think it really tees up a larger question for the agency, the ip transition really challenges the agency to modernize its entire approach to regulation. Awarek we are all pretty of how dramatic the changes in the industry have been in the past decade. Encouraged that chairman wheeler and the commission have decided to tackle this pretty immediately after he assumed the job, in fact. And i think tom wheeler is the kind of guy that i think understands the challenge and the difficulty of altering the culture and the approach of an agency. I think that is the biggest challenge that they have, really bringing the fcc into the 21stcentury and updating its entire approach to match the realities of the marketplace. You, jim. Considering its 2014, and probably not too much to ask that they get up to speed in the 21st century. Steve . Randy, i have to say, after that introduction, my stock goes downhill with every moment that i speak. Im better off just passing to greg. I do want to say that when my wife and i go out to dinner and they asked me what i want to eat, my First Response is always spectrum. [laughter] priorityis our highest that we have and it will continue to be. We began the debate about spectrum that is coming to and itnow back in 2008 is the fastest that spectrum has ever come to market in terms of moving this debate along. They holdthrough 2014 the age block. It was a successful auction. They will come up with others, three later this year in the third quarter. Nme have the broadcast spectrum auction that will be held by mid2015. I applaud the chairman for getting the spectrum out to the marketplace. It is something less than 300 megahertz of the president 500 megahertz that he called for a couple of years ago. We certainly applaud him for that effort. Andant to continue to push get the spectrum as quickly as possible, because the bunnies like the two gentlemen represent on either side of me are using the spectrum for new and varied uses. And the people who stand to gain the most are consumers that are now over 310 million in this country. We want to see that continue. Thank you, steve. Craig . Single point, my i will agree with steve. It is spectrum, spectrum, spectrum. Areas wherese are the innovation and the investment in the industry and the Technological Progress are going to bring tremendous consumer benefits, and really what we are looking for as policy makers is to stand back and let that innovation innovate innovation of spectrum take place. To takepolicymakers affirmative action. Spectrum is the lifeblood for the innovation that is taking place in this industry. This is an area where the spectrum needs to get into the market place or it is going to choke off that investment and that innovation. And by the way, this is not just a rule for the fcc. The fcc is doing a good job in getting some spectrum out. We have three spectrum options auctions that have teed out in a fourmonth timeframe with after going years without having any. There is a strong role for congress here, too. It is controlled by lots and lots of different agencies, lots of different entities. That makes it very difficult to get the spectrum identified clearly and move it out. There are rules for the fcc, the commerce department, and for congress in getting the spectrum in the hands of the industry for it to be best used. Thank you. The second question is going to be a bit of a softball, too. And then you may notice that there will they will get increasingly more difficult. Here is the second question. This comes from todays Washington Post crossword puzzle. Its numbers you will be at a disadvantage if you have not seen it. It is number 63 down. You can check it out. Ive got it here. Is, government regulator of radio and television and it is three letters. Who can answer that first . [laughter] i guess they can all answer it or not. My wife is an avid crossword puzzler and she got it right away. Fcc. I was just grateful it did not say government regulator of the internet. I think that was good. This. He next question is just sticking a little bit with the institutional side of things what do you find most tomuraging about what wheeler has done so far at the commission, and what do you find most troubling about what hes done at the commission . And keep in mind that our theme today for the conference is a new fcc and we talked earlier about the new chairman of that. I want to throw that out. And to some extent, it may coincide to some extent with what you said about your party or not. Just go down the line starting as far as what you might want to say in response to that. From the very outset, chairman wheeler has been talking about the rules of competition. I think it is encouraging that he has recognized that the technologies have changed, the markets are changed some of the fundamental policy ecosystem has changed the markets have changed, the fundamental policy go system has changed since the rules were put in place. And ultimately, regulation is meant to be surrogate for when competition does not exist, but we will look first to competition. That is tremendously encouraging. We will see that acted out in practice, but as far as a philosophy that he has laid out as a cornerstone of his regulatory approach, think that has been tremendously encouraging. Randy said, we cannot just say the good without the disappointing. As far as what is disappointing, i would say what is most disappointing is not something chairman wheeler has done, but rather something that has not been done yet. And for me, that is updating the spectrum screen. The spectrum screen, in theory, is a great tool. It is something objective. You lay out the total amount of spectrum in the industry. You lay out a clear and objective standard of where the limit is, under which there is safe harbor for anyone company to owns eckstrom in the market. To own spectrum in the market. And that should provide clarity for transactions. Has not beens, it updated. There are huge swaths of spectrum, particularly held by hold morewho o spectrum than anybody else in the industry by a long shot. Within the spectrum screen itself, you take now a tool that should be clear in its objective and allow companies to make Investment Decisions with clarity and you have thrown in an unknown meant in an element of uncertainty. It is more than just a particular issue. For me, an area that is so potentially objective and clear there should not be any real question around interpretation. This is not a big goober policy question or math rule. You set a roll and you apply it. And yet, the fact that it is so clearly results oriented he comes a question of institutional integrity. If this jewel that is so potentially objective and clear is being if this tool that is so potentially objective and a certaineing used in concerns it lends about clarity on hold other set of issues. How you arest about managing the spectrum astro assets in this country. It sends a signal that says, we say this is what the policy is, this is really how we implement it. But thanks for that. And to illustrate how we are going to have around today and make this completely interactive , i want to follow up on that and then we will come back to the general question. But i know that in the last day or so, the spectrum screen has , because he was employed recently with the at t league transactions. I want to take issue in this with you in this a bit. That as opposed to a regulation that was adopted in cfr, i think the inherent intent of this is that the commission use it as a trigger. But then it looks at other factors. Factors. At other it has that goes into it as opposed to a rule. I mean, thats the way i view it. Adopt a be better to regulation that would be more binding in the sense that a screen is not intended to be, at least in the commissions mind as opposed to yours from the beginning . As i said, i believe at t was just recently the issue came up with them. At all withagree what i just said about a rule versus a screen, but i wanted to ask him about that and then we will come back to you, craig. We think a rule is warranted. We have argued for that for a couple of years now. Think there is merit in having a screen. And i think it is supposed to work as youve described, randy, which is it provides company some certainty. You know you are under it. And if you are over it in any particular market, then there are added layers of scrutiny that the commission is going to subject it to. What is a little disturbing to us is that there seems to be a tendency now, and we commented on this on friday. Tore seems to be a tendency not, in fact, view the screen as a safe harbor, but to even raise questions if you are under the screen. Is really athat notion that calls in to question the entire reason for having the screen. If there is no certainty that any company has in terms of their spectrum holdings, then its going to jam up the ability, at least in the secondary market, to operate effectively. If you are under the screen, yet youre still not somehow safe, then i think it really raises thequestion as to whether commission isnt just kind of making it up as it goes along. Companies need certainty in these areas. Companies tolows invest in the secondary market to work. When you know you are under the screen. We want to at least raise that question on friday, because i do think it should be a safe harbor. And i think if you put it in a rule, then that ought to be one of the aspects of the role. The rule. Steve, do you have a view on this question of screen versus rule, or how the commission administers the screen . I should say, as most of you know, steve is at least in my view, being the head of a trade , i mean, probably was more difficult getting in the hall of fame with all of the different interest in pulling in different ways. Do you have an opinion on the screen . Instead of scaring focusing on scarcity, we need to be focusing on abundance. We need to not be worried about how much spectrum you have, but keep blowing out more spectrum in auctions another way. That would be my overall view of this. James or rebecca, do you either of you have anything you want to say on the spectrum screen specifically . No. Electing i would add on the spectrum side is picking up on said abouthat was the importance of getting unlicensed spectrum out there, too. I think the commission has paid a lot of good attention to that and we are hopeful that well get out there, too, to provide what we all need for wifi. I have a whole set of questions that we will get to. We will get to some of them on spectrum as well down the line. This is jus