*Pages 1--1 from  FCC3992 Cover Congress Report*
 7 
 Statement  of  Commissioner  Jonathan  S.  Adelstein,  Dissenting 
 hile  there  is  good  rea-son 
 for  optimism 
 about  the  transforma-tive 
 power  of 
 broadband,  I  must 
 dissent  from  the  core 
 holding  of  this 
 Report.  Congress 
 directed  this  Commission  to  determine  whether 
 advanced  telecommunications  capability  is  being 
 deployed  to  all  Americans  in  a  reasonable  and  timely 
 fashion,  and  to  advise  if  more  action  is  needed. 
 Unfortunately,  there  are  serious  warning  signs  that  we 
 are  falling  behind.  Most  notably,  the  U.  S.  was  recently 
 ranked  11th  in  the  world  for  broadband  penetration, 
 and  other  sources  suggest  that  we  are  trailing  our  closest 
 competitors  among  the  industrialized  nations. 
 Broadband  providers  in  the  U.  S.  have  made  remarkable 
 strides,  but  a  country  of  our  ingenuity  and  historic 
 leadership  in  telecommunications  must  do  better. 
 Our  country  is  increasingly  reliant  on  the  power 
 of  instantaneous  telecommunications.  From  telecom-muting 
 to  distance  learning  to  telemedicine, 
 broadband  is  bridging  the  distances  between  us  and 
 transforming  communities.  As  these  powerful  commu-nications 
 tools  evolve,  the  deployment  of  broadband  is 
 ever  more  critical  to  the  health  of  our  economy  and 
 quality  of  life. 
 This  Report  highlights  encouraging  stories  of 
 broadband  deployment  that  can  serve  as  models  to 
 assist  other  communities  in  meeting  their  broadband 
 needs.  It  documents  the  remarkable  commitment  and 
 investment  of  service  providers  to  bring  broadband  to 
 their  customers.  Many  innovative  companies  are  stak-ing 
 their  futures  on  broadband.  These  providers  are 
 courageously  taking  risks  despite  uncertainty  about  the 
 regulatory  framework  they  will  face. 
 Given  our  increasing  reliance  on  high  speed  com-munications, 
 I  am  concerned  about  mounting 


 evidence  that  we  are  falling  behind  in  broadband 
 deployment.  Data  in  the  Report  show  that  the  global 
 leaders  not  only  have  higher  penetration,  but  offer 
 higher  speeds  at  lower  prices.  These  findings  seriously 
 suggest  that  our  current  definition  of  “first-  generation” 
 broadband  is  woefully  out  of  step  with  the  global  lead-ers, 
 and  that  we  should  already  be  tracking  the 
 deployment  of  next-  generation  broadband  services. 
 I  am  also  concerned  about  the  prospects  for  rapid 
 deployment  to  communities  traditionally  unserved  by 
 market  forces  alone.  If  we  are  soon  to  achieve  universal 
 access  to  broadband,  we  need  to  give  providers  serving 
 those  hardest-  to-  reach  consumers  more  tools,  and  we 
 must  protect  and  advance  programs  like  universal  serv-ice 
 that  have  facilitated  build-  out  to  so  many 
 communities. 
 I  have  seen  firsthand  how  important  broadband  is 
 to  rural  communities,  those  on  tribal  lands,  and  per-sons 
 with  disabilities.  Broadband  gives  businesses  in 
 Rural  America  the  tools  they  need  to  compete  across 
 the  globe.  Access  to  telemedicine  and  distance  learn-ing, 
 and  the  vast  array  of  resources  available  through 
 the  Internet,  gives  rural  Americans  the  same  opportu-nities 
 that  others  enjoy.  Broadband  services  also  play  an 
 increasing  role  in  giving  persons  with  disabilities  func-tional 
 equivalence.  For  these  reasons,  we  must 
 re-  double  our  efforts. 
 While  we  continue  to  improve  this  Report,  it  ulti-mately 
 remains  hindered  by  the  lack  of  critical  data 
 that  would  allow  us  to  gauge  more  accurately  and 
 comprehensively  broadband  availability.  Despite  long-standing 
 acknowledgement  of  the  limitations  of  the 
 overbroad  zip  code  data,  we  again  make  conclusions 
 about  critical  segments  of  our  population  without  all 
 the  facts.  Given  that  lack  of  information,  strong  indi-cations 
 that  we  are  trailing  in  the  global  marketplace, 
 and  the  importance  of  broadband  to  our  overall  eco-nomic 
 health,  I  cannot  conclude  that  broadband 
 deployment  is  reasonable  and  timely. 


 W 
1