STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS
Re: In the Matter of Universal Service Reform, Mobility Fund, Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking, WT Docket No. 10-208. 
Here we have yet another step toward achieving a key goal of the National Broadband Plan:  
connecting America to advanced mobile services. Getting this Mobility Fund up and running is an 
important step as we work simultaneously to reform the Universal Service Fund. While it’s not going to 
get everyone and every place into advanced wireless service, it is going to help, it is important, and it’s 
something we can and should do on an aggressive timeline to realize needed and timely investment in 
unserved and underserved America.
The new Mobility Fund will provide a much-needed down payment on closing America’s digital 
divide. We’ve got a ways to go. That was brought home to me over the past couple of weeks as my wife 
and I vacationed in China. Even as we toured the treasures of Chinese antiquity, like the Great Wall, the 
Terra Cotta warriors and the Forbidden City, we also were able to take advantage of some pretty 
impressive telecommunications technology. We sailed down the Yangtze River, surrounded on both 
sides by mountains, and as we floated down those long and beautiful river valleys, I was almost never 
without 3G service. The sight of that 3G signal along the top of my Blackberry screen almost everywhere 
we went on our trip made quite an impression on me. I dare say there are many places in the United 
States—and they’re not just river valleys, either—where I wouldn’t find that kind of service. That’s one 
example of why moving ahead with a Mobility Fund and comprehensive USF reform is so important.
I want to commend the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and the Wireline Competition 
Bureau for their hard work in bringing this item to us. In it, we rightly consider how to get the most 
bang-for-the-buck from Mobility Fund support, how to ensure that smaller carriers can compete in the 
bidding, and how to protect consumers and ratepayer dollars once investment is made. I am particularly 
grateful to the staff for ensuring that today’s Notice asks questions not only about expanding coverage for 
those Americans in areas that are underserved by 3G and 4G service, but also that it examines how we 
might prioritize support to those areas that are truly unserved.
I look forward to working with the Chairman and my colleagues to move this proceeding to 
completion quickly. And, I will continue to work with our Office of Native Affairs as we consult 
government-to-government to examine options for Mobility Fund and other USF support to expand 
coverage on tribal lands. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in this.