FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 
WASHINGTON 
OFFICE OF 
THE CHAIRMAN 
The Honorable Rob Portman 
United States Senate 
448 Russell Senate Office Building 
Washington, D.C. 20510 
Dear Senator Portman: 
April29, 2014 
Thank you for your letter regarding Horizon Telecom and its Fiber-to-the-Premises 
(FTTP) broadband deployment project. I appreciate your views and will ensure that your letter 
will be included in the record of the proceeding and considered as part of the Commission's 
review. 
In a unanimously adopted Technology Transitions Order (Order) in January, the 
Commission recognized that particular challenges exist for the deployment of next generation 
communications services in rural areas. In order to inform our policies on building next 
generation networks in rural America, the Commission invited proposals parties to submit 
expressions of interest to determine whether there is interest into constructing high bandwidth 
networks in rural, high-cost areas, including Tribal lands. 
A diverse set of entities have filed nearly 1,000 expressions of interest, including rural 
telephone companies, electric co-ops, cable and wireless Internet service providers, schools and 
libraries, research and education networks, and rural communities. The proposals reflect the 
understanding that high bandwidth services are becoming increasingly important to the future of 
economic development, education, health care, government services, entertainment, information, 
communication and creativity. 
The Commission currently is reviewing the expressions of interest that have been 
submitted, and we have sought public comment on a number of rural broadband experiment 
issues, including the size of the budget and selection criteria to be used in reviewing proposals. 
After completing a review of the submissions and the record in response to our Further Notice of 
Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission would adopt an Order setting a budget and establishing 
detailed selection criteria for rural broadband experiments. At that point, we would invite 
parties, such as Horizon Telecom, to submit formal proposals for consideration by Commission 
staff. 
I appreciate your interest in this matter. Please let me know if I can be of any further 
assistance. 
Sincerel~ ~ 
"&Hilt 
Tom Wheeler