Senator as chair of the joint board in the february open internet decision, the commission expressly extended the referral to the joint board. As you probably know under section 254 of the law, assessment for universal service is on the basis of interstate Telecommunication Services. And we are charged with making sure that that fund has specific, predictable, and sufficient support. The joint board is tasked with trying to figure out how to update that support mechanism, but the underlying terminology associated with Telecommunication Service is now the subject of litigation in the court of appeals. So the commission decided that it would defer decisionmaking on that until the Legal Environment is more stable. But pardon. Are you concerned that the title two order is not going to withstand litigation fully intact . Well, i have no crystal ball when it comes to the decisions of the dc circuit, i have confidence in our decision as it was made. We are resourceconstrained, it would not be smart or prudent for the agency or our state colleagues to work on this matter until we have greater legal certainty. If you are comfortable that the order is lawful, it seems ironic that you would be concerned that it wont be upheld in court. And that is that the order then is lawful in your opinion. It doesnt seem like the litigation ought to be used an excuse to delay what are important universal Service Contribution reforms. And so, i guess i would ask why the litigation should, if in your judgment, the commission acted in a lawful way consistent with the statutes, why you wouldnt want to proceed with that process. Well, i think we could continue to have conversations about it, but i would like us to produce a decision that we have confidence will be something that the agency can take up and vote on at some point in the future. Sop we want to be certain that the statutory terminology is not evolving, but sufficiently stiebl support our decisionmaking. Have you given your views about the title two order delaying this process . Considered asking congress for guidance on offering or offering recommendations, i would say, to congress that might point to a way of resolving potential questions of Commission Authority regarding universal Service Contributions. Thank you, senator, thats a very good point. Obviously the universal service program, we have is in large part of creation of this committee back in the 1996 teleCommunications Act. And i think any guidance that youd like to offer us with respect to both contribution and distribution, it would be absolutely welcome. Well, and we would welcome your looking to us for that direction as well. And perhaps giving us your thoughts about that. I want to ask one final question, of call completion. Its something that consumer groups and rural customers continue to report problems and receiving Long Distance wireless calls on their home telephones and to address a lot of these problems, as you know, the fcc adopted new rules last dwreer in november year in november that were designed to monitor delivery of Long Distance calls to aid in the prosecution of violations of the Communications Act. What has the fcc monitored . Thank you, senator, for the question. Rural call completion has unfortunately been a big problem and its distressing to know that people will reach out to friends and family in rural areas or try to make a business connection or worse, reach out for Public Safety call and find that the call does not go through. So the agency has issued a declare tear ruling to make clear that failure is a violation of the law. Weve also gone after some bad acto actors, as you knowledged, the most important thing we did is updated our Data Collection so that carriers have a responsibility to report to us on these matters. Our hope subpoena with more data and more reports well be able to track failures to complete calls and go after bad actors more aggressively. The first filings with that new did that collection were just made, and we are reviewing them right now. My hope is we can identify some patterns over time, figure out where the problem is, and that well have the record to bring this to a stop. Senator. The emerging budget deal asked to identify federal spectrum to be made available for commercial use by some accounts, thats about one tenth of what the private sector will need. I think this is a pretty good start, but im interest in the your thoughts about what more the commission can do, what more the congress can do to free up more spectrum and possibly generate more revenue for the treasury. Thank you, senator, the wireless economy is growing fast, we all know that intuitively knowing just how often we reach for our phones and mobile devices. We have so much more activity in our air waives and if we want the growth to continue, we are going to have to mind nor spectrum for it to do so. That continues to provide us with air waves for licensed and unleensed services to make sure the wireless economy continues to grow. Thank you. I want to thank you the home work gap, i know youre passionate about this. What id like for you to do is describe it in as simple terms as you possibly can on a human level if you wouldnt mind. Then talk about what the fcc is doing, can be doing, and what the committee could be doing to address this because i find it frankly shocking that we are in the public and private School Systems assigning home work that depends on the internet, and then not providing access to enable kids to do their homework. Thank you. So when i was growing up, when i wanted to do my homework, requires paper, pencil, and my brother leaving me alone. Today, more often than not, it requires the internet. There are studies that suggest that seven and ten teachers assign homework that requires internet access. The data from the fcc suggests that one in three households do not have that access. And the survey found that there are five million households with schoolaged children in this country that do not have internet access. So just imagine what its like to be a kid in one of those households, getting your basic school work done is hard, applying far scholarship or job is challenging this strikes me as the cruellest part of the divide, but its within our power to fix it and bridge it. There are programs that we have that support low income right now and householding that we could update, we could clear more of our skies for wifi services, which is an easy way to get more people online, then we should support public and private sector partnerships that help get Broadband Access and commuting power into students hands at home. Right now there is a connect home initiative, connect ed is designed to help support connectivity in schools, connect ed is an effort, excuse me, connect ed is an effort to designed to support connectivity in schools, connect home is an effort that is designed to support it at home. It is a new element we should all be on guard for ways to solve and fix. We want you to be relentless on this and we look forward to working with you on this. Thank you. And senator. Commissioner, i bet your brother got out of the way when you told him to. And i hope hes doing well, also. Lets talk about the universal service fund. Its wireless component, the Mobility Fund, as those relate to Rural America and specifically precision agriculture. We had a representative from john deere a few days ago testify before the economy about precision akture technology, and he said supports expansion of fccs Mobility Fund. In your judgment, is existing Rural Wireless coverage at risk of being substantialed or even reduced without continued usf support . Yes. And what needs to be done in response to that risk of this important segment of our economy . Well, to date, the fcc has proceeded with the first element of its Mobility Fund. Weve made available roughly 300 million in that fund to support deployment in rural areas. But we need to move on to the second phase of the fund, and what id like that second phase to do is focus with laserlike accuracy on areas of the country, rural areas, that do not have service today. Because we know that areas that are better broadband and Wireless Service are better equipped to compete, thats true for urban america and Rural America alike. And actually, i think you, you used that very term laserlike focus earlier this year when you appeared for this panel to talk about spectrum and wireless broadband. How is that issue proceeding now among the five members of the commission . And what concrete steps should the commission take in Mobility Fund too to preserve existing levels of wireless coverage . What concrete steps should the commission take in areas such as remote patient monitoring, which is a huge concern of mine, precision aktugriculture and puc safety. And what should congress do . What can congress do . Well, the examples you just gave are examples of how useful wireless is. Remote patient monitoring can help with health care, particularly for the elderly or individuals who live in rural areas where traveling to a hospital or Health Clinic takes a long time. Monitoring at home is incredibly efficient and costeffective. Precision you could even monitor in ambulances now. Uhhuh. Do we not . Yes. Go ahead. Agriculture too, underappreciated how important Wireless Technology is to help support our nations farms. And then of course Public Safety. So, when you contemplate the breath of what Wireless Services can do, we need to make sure that our Mobility Fund, the second phase of it moves ahead. And focuses on the benefits that we could provide in Rural America. I think that we should find, make sure that we put the remainder of our universal service work on a timeline so we can commit that we will have the second phase of the Mobility Fund in place in short order. And how is that debate proceeding among the five members of the commission in your judgment . In my candid judgment, we have some differences of opinion on that. I would like however us to follow through. We committed in 2011 to having a second phase of the Mobility Fund, and id like to see us put in it in place as soon as we can. I wonder when the commission might be moving toward a consensus in that, on that question. Well, i can tell you, senator, if reconfirmed, i will press my colleagues to work to consensus on that, i think its important to do so. Duch recommendations as to what congress can do to encourage more Rural Broadband . I do. I think theres actually legislation before this committee from two senators, the Rural Wireless accessibility act, and in fact, it recommends that in areas of the country where large carriers might own licenses to deploy, but are not deploys, they make sure they lease that out to smaller rural carriers so they can deploy in Rural Communities. And in order to make them more inclined to do that, it gives license extension. And i think that kind of incentivebased system is a way to push secondary markets to work well and better serve Rural America. So youre endorsing the Fisher Clover Charter bill, is that correct . I think theyre going to want me to say yes. I believe the fundamental idea in there is spot on and could be particularly helpful for Rural Communities. Thank you very much. Senator markey. Thank you mr. Chairman, very much. Big decision earlier this year at the fcc, and i appreciate the fact that your decision on Net Neutrality titled two is in the courts, but i also believe that the contract that we have today under your new regulation is the correct one. Its a good balance between the Broadband Companies on the one hand, and on the other hand, you have all these startups, the software and internetspecific companies all across the country, all these smart, smart young people who are listening to guster right now, who really do, you know, make the difference to change in our society. And right now, theyre drawing 65 of all Venture Capital in america are going to software and internet specific new companies. Sop its a good balance. And thats really the change in our society. So i wanted to compliment you on that because i do think that theres a high probability of that decision being uphead, i think its on very strong, legal grounds. But id like it turn, if i could, to your decision of just a year ago, which was to increase the contribution that is inside of the education rate to make sure that were wiring schools that we wire the libraries, that we give the young people in our country the access to the technology, which they need, in order to compete. And so, you know, weve got wifi in starbucks, and people go in there now, and thats a constitutional right people have to go to a starbucks and to use their wifi, but not so much in schools or classrooms. Kid doesnt automatically, you know, guaranteed that thats the case. And you talked about the kids that dont have the internet, even at home. And i guess thats kind of what id like you to elaborate a little bit more on, because when i was a kid, you know, my father was a milkman, but if i took my books home, i could compete with the School Superintendents son. We all do that. People on this panel. But in a modern era, the School Superintendent son has access to all these incredible technologies, and the poorer you are, the less likely youre going to have it. In a way thats going to allow you to compete in a world where businesses and schools are going to be looking towards your familiarity, your ability to be able to use that skillset. So thats kind of a big divide that continues to be out there. And you really led the charge to increase it up to 3. 4 billion a year. The funding thats going into that, and wifi is a big part of that. Could you elaborate a little bit more about how you see that unfolding and what the fcc is doing to monitor that to make sure it gets implemented properly . Right. Thank you, senator. It is the nations largest Education Technology program, as you know. When i got to the fcc, what i found was it was frozen in the era of dialup. And if you think about that, that just makes no sense. We know that half the jobs today require some level of digital skill, and by the end of the decade, its going to be 77 . We need to make sure that every student and every school and every community has the ability to participate in the new economy. Thank you. And you are right, this was a program that was put in place just as the 1996 act was passed. And it was a dialup era, not one home had broadband when we passed that in 1996, and center rockefeller and i created this e rate program back then, and its now spent 36, 38 billion making sure that kids have access to it, but the modernization just has to continue. And if you could just elaborate a little bit more an just how you see wifi, spaeskically as a technology, you know, unfolding at, in its role to give the kids the cools they need. Its so important, students use to march down the hall once a week where a computer lab showed up in shrinked wrapped packages. Thats no longer the way it has today. They need to be capable of device learning, that requires wifi. And one of the best things about what we did is we updated whats known as category two in the e rate program to make sure that wifi support is available for schools. And many more schools are going to be able to get support from this program to not only get broadband through the front door, but move it around the school and to every classroom as a result. Well, in december, we celebrate the First Anniversary of that change in the law, and you were a Real Driving Force in doing that. So i want to congratulate you on what you have done for the children of our country. Its a great accomplishment. Thank you senator markey. Thank you, chairman. And commissioner, its great to have you here and thanks for your work on the spectrum auction that comes up next year. It now looks like maybe as many as 1,000 local broadcast stations will have to move where they are to somewhere new and if thats going to cost twice as much as the estimate of what it would cost, i think the cost comes out of the proceeds of the auction. You can correct me if im wrong on that. But, what kind of preparations are you all making at the fcc for 1,000 stations to have to find a new place to be and for that cost to be twice as high as you initially thought it was going to be . Thank you, senator. Youre right, we have a very big auction coming up next year, we have the worlds first spectrum incentive auctions, and thatll put more mobile broadband into commercial carriers hands. Well make more on licensed opportunities available. And it will give broadcasters an opportunity to participate by getting out of the business of broadcasting, or continue to stay in. Some segment of the broadcast lers need to relocate their stations. I cant tell you right now if the number you have is correct because until were in the middle of the auction, i dont think were actually boing to know how many stations need to relocate. Under the middle class tax relief and job creation act, congress set aside 1. 75 billion from the auction proceeds to assist those stations with relocation. I think it is important that we make sure that those funds are ample every decision thats being relocated should have the ability to access those funds. The present ti