REMARKS OF GIGI B. SOHN, 
COUNSELOR TO FCC CHAIRMAN WHEELER:
‘MOVING TOWARDS A GIGABIT STATE’
NEW HAVEN, CT
MAY 4, 2015
Thank you Senator Bye for that wonderful introduction. I’d also like to express my deepest 
appreciation to State of Connecticut Consumer Counsel Elin Katz and State Broadband Policy 
Coordinator Bill Vallee for inviting me to speak to this august group. One of the best parts of my 
job is meeting people like Beth, Elin and Bill who are passionate about the ability of 
communications networks to improve the lives of Americans. 
Before I begin, I have a few questions I need to ask to get a better sense of the room.
First, Sally’s or Pepe’s? Let me see the Sally’s people … Now, Pepe’s. Thanks. The correct answer 
is that both can only dream of being as good as New York pizza. 
Next question: Red Sox or Yankees? First, Red Sox. Now, Yankees. Ok. The correct answer was 
New York Mets. New York Mets.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m not only horrible at picking baseball teams, I’m not one to 
pander to an audience. So, when I tell you that the CTgig Project is one of the most exciting and 
important initiatives in the country, you know I mean it. 
Today, I want to talk to you about why the leadership at the FCC – America’s broadband agency 
– is watching the CTgig Project closely and pulling for its success. 
CTgig is a big deal because expanding broadband is about expanding opportunity.  
Start with opportunities for our economy. Already, high-speed connectivity has enabled entirely 
new industries to bloom, seemingly overnight. 
Think of the mobile apps economy, which didn’t even exist less than a decade ago. Today, it’s 
already created more than 600,000 new U.S. jobs. 
There’s the sharing economy, epitomized by companies like AirBnB and Uber, which takes idle 
resources and puts them to use, creating enormous value for consumers.
Consider the latest high-profile IPO – Etsy. This website has created a platform for more than a 
million entrepreneurs to sell their handmade goods to a global audience of nearly 20 million 
active buyers.
But broadband creates new opportunities not only for our economy, but for almost every facet 
of our lives and society.
Broadband creates opportunities for education. Interactive digital learning tools can tailor 
personalized lessons to match each student’s strength and weaknesses. 
2Broadband creates opportunities for health care. Ubiquitous connectivity enables remote 
monitoring tools that can identify health risks before they become a crisis.
Broadband creates opportunities for energy. Smart grids and smart homes will help consumers 
save money, while helping to save the environment.
Broadband creates opportunities for better government. Individuals can come together and 
influence elected officials in new and powerful ways. The nearly 4 million Americans who 
commented on and helped improve the FCC’s new Net Neutrality rules can back me up on that. 
To seize these opportunities and fully realize the potential of broadband to improve the lives of 
the American people, broadband networks need to be fast, fair, and open. On those measures, 
we face significant challenges.
Start with fast networks. 
The good news is that our mobile broadband networks are the envy of the world. Not long ago 
we had as many 4G LTE subscribers as the rest of the world combined. 
On the fixed broadband side, it’s another story. International rankings consistently score the 
U.S. outside the top 10 in broadband speeds. Last I checked, most Americans aren’t content 
with being outside the top 10 in anything that matters – certainly not anything as important as 
the quality of our digital infrastructure.
According to Akamai, the average fixed broadband connection in America is about 12 megabits 
per second. That’s fine if you live alone, and all you’re doing online is minimal browsing each 
night while streaming a movie on Netflix. But broadband can enable so much more. 
We want to see average speeds grow to 50 Megabits per second, 100, and eventually even 1 
Gigabit per second. When you achieve those speeds – the speeds you are talking about with the 
CTgig project – you remove bandwidth as a constraint on innovation. That’s when American 
ingenuity takes over and anything is possible. 
Now, let me talk about fair networks. There are two keys to fair networks: universal access and 
competitive choice so consumers are getting a fair shake. This is where we face the toughest 
challenges.
About 10 million Americans can’t get wired broadband at any speed if they wanted it. The 
infrastructure just isn’t there. And it doesn’t make economic sense for private ISPs to build in 
these areas. 
The costs of digital exclusion are staggering. If you live in these communities, you simply can’t 
be a full participant in our modern economy and democracy. Job applications are increasingly 
online only. If you can’t get online, you can’t get a job. 
I hear anecdotal evidence all the time about how young people in towns that are offline feel 
compelled to move elsewhere for fear that there’s no future for them in a town without 
broadband. 
Broadband Communities magazine had an article last month looking at this issue and found that 
these are not just isolated stories. Looking at counties lacking access to 25 megabit broadband 
3located in states where there are restrictions on community broadband, they found that 
population growth in these broadband have-not counties was lagging. 
The most effective tool for driving investment and improvements in our broadband networks is 
competition. The simple truth is that meaningful competition for high-speed wired broadband is 
lacking. 
It used to be that most Americans had at least two choices for fixed Internet service: the cable 
company and the local telco offering DSL. The problem is that traditional DSL has not kept pace 
with the needs of today’s consumers and is no longer a real alternative to faster cable and fiber 
networks. At 25 megabits per second, just under 75 percent of U.S. homes can choose from only 
one or fewer fixed wired providers – and that includes almost 20 percent who have no option at 
all at that speed.
Lack of competition typically means lesser service and higher prices for consumers. It also 
increases the risks that broadband providers could use their market power in a way that 
threatens Internet openness.
So what can we do to overcome these challenges and seize the opportunities of fast, fair, and 
open broadband networks? 
The FCC is working hard to do its part.
This February, the FCC adopted the strongest open Internet protections ever proposed by the 
Commission. These rules will assure the rights of consumers and innovators to use the Internet 
without interference from gatekeepers. 
We adopted these rules by reclassifying broadband internet access as a 
“telecommunications service” and modernizing our authority under Title II of the 
Communications Act. This light-touch approach forbears from outdated, burdensome rules and 
preserves the economic underpinnings for competitive infrastructure investment.  
However, I would note that we declined to forbear from Section 224 of Title II, which governs 
pole attachments. We want to ensure broadband providers can access poles at just and 
reasonable rates. To a layperson, this might be the most boring thing they have ever heard. But 
this audience knows that pole access is a big deal and helps lower the costs of broadband 
deployment. Senator Bye is a legend for her savvy legislative move to ensure that cities and 
towns can use the “gain” (or the flat part) on poles for any purpose, including broadband. 
But that is not all the FCC has done to remove barriers to broadband build out.  As many of you 
know, 19 states have adopted laws to restrict community broadband efforts, often passed due 
to heavy lobbying support by incumbent broadband providers. 
Two cities, Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina, recently decided to fight back. 
Both have successfully deployed community broadband networks, but state laws prevented
them from expanding their networks to surrounding areas. 
They petitioned the FCC to pre-empt the restrictive provisions of these state laws that 
functioned as barriers to investment and deployment in their communities. In February, the 
Commission did just that.
4The Commission respects the important role of state governments in our federal system, and we 
do not take the matter of preempting state laws lightly. But when state laws directly conflict 
with Federal laws and policy, we will not be afraid to act.  By preempting restrictive provisions of 
state law, we sent a clear message that we believe the American people, through their elected 
local officials, have the right to make their own decisions about their broadband future. 
Moreover, the Commission continues to move forward with our existing programs to promote 
broadband deployment. Over the next six years, the FCC will disburse $11 billion through the 
Connect America Fund to support infrastructure build-out in unserved rural areas. We have 
modernized our E-rate program to support fiber deployment to and Wi-Fi within the nation’s 
schools and libraries. And we recently asked for public comment on additional ways to bring 
faster broadband to all Americans.
That brings me to the main point I want to make today. No matter what the Commission does to 
spur broadband investment and deployment, there will be communities that are underserved, 
or even unserved, by the private market. 
When commercial providers don’t step up to serve a community’s needs, we should embrace 
the great American tradition of citizens stepping up to take action collectively.  
Across America, communities have concluded that existing private sector broadband offerings 
are not meeting their needs and the only solution is to become directly involved in broadband 
deployment.  
Some communities have worked with private sector providers to facilitate improved broadband 
service. Others have entered into various forms of public private partnerships. Still other 
communities have decided to deploy broadband networks themselves. 
These efforts are reaping dividends for the communities that take these steps. 
Just look at Chattanooga, where large companies like Amazon and Volkswagen have invested in 
new facilities, citing the city’s world-leading network as a reason why. And Chattanooga is 
emerging as an incubator for tech start-ups. 
Or look at The Dalles, a tiny Oregon town of about 12,000 residents with a 17 mile fiber network 
that enticed Google to buy a large industrial site where they house high-tech equipment that 
connects to the rest of its network.  
Contrast these examples with the Nutmeg State, where companies like Aetna, ESPN and 
Priceline are demanding, yet lacking, greater broadband capacity at reasonable rates for their 
companies and their communities. I understand that some businesses have even considered 
moving or reducing their operations in the state because of the price of broadband. 
That’s what’s so exciting about the CTgig project. We’ve seen how ultra-high-speed networks 
can invigorate a city’s economy. But we’ve never seen what could happen if we had a Gigabit 
State. 
We talk about fast, fair, and open broadband. CTgig could deliver universal access to ultra-fast 
networks at costs lower than what people pay for basic service today. 
5The possibilities are limitless.
Imagine a pervasive mindset of bandwidth abundance, not scarcity, which encourages 
experimentation and what that could mean.
Imagine the young entrepreneur in Ridgefield launching her online startup in her hometown 
rather than moving away to a bigger city. 
Imagine a distance learner in Bridgeport taking a full course load online. 
Imagine a senior with diabetes in Danbury taking advantage of treatments that use online video 
for regular consultations and wireless monitoring that requires high-data transmissions.  
But it hasn’t happened yet. 46 communities representing more than half of the state’s 
population have bought in, which is remarkable. But there are 169 municipalities. So there’s still 
room for growth. And, of course, there are still the challenges of execution. 
But I think this group is up to it.
I may be from New York, but I’ll be the first to admit that Connecticut has historically done great 
things that have moved this nation forward. 
Connecticut is the first state to adopt a constitution, establishing a representative government.
The first publicly funded library in the country was opened in Connecticut. 
Connecticut was the home to world-changing inventors like Eli Whitney and Igor Sikorsky.
Heck, the first hamburger was sold right here in New Haven. That’s about as all-American as it 
gets. 
Across the country, we see community after community stepping up to write their broadband 
future. But Connecticut has a unique opportunity to set the pace for the nation. Chairman 
Wheeler and I applaud your ambition and look forward to working with you to deliver the 
benefits of broadband to the American people.  
Thank you.