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The Honorable Ajit Pai, Chairman 
Federal Communications Commission 
445 12th Street S.W. 
Washington, DC 20554 
Dear Chairman Pai, 
WASHINGTON, DC 20510 
February 2, 2017 
As you begin your tenure as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), we urge your 
continued focus on ensuring access to mobile broadband services in rural America and closing the digital 
divide as a top priority for the Commission. 
We appreciate your keen understanding of the benefits that mobile broadband brings to rural America, 
allowing "anyone, anywhere [to] innovate and succeed." Reliable high-speed mobile broadband is 
critical to advancing telehealth services, precision agriculture, economic opportunities, education, public 
safety, and an ever growing list of new innovations and applications. It is necessary for our constituents, 
living in some of the most remote and rural areas, to participate in today's digital economy. 
We support your efforts to close the digital divide for low-income and rural Americans. Going forward, 
these efforts must include removing barriers to broadband deployment and promoting innovation, as well 
as adopting a Universal Service Fund (USF) Mobility Fund Phase II (MFII). 
As you move forward with MFII, we ask that your efforts help to incent wireless carriers to preserve, 
upgrade, and expand mobile broadband in rural America, rather than degrade and reduce competition in 
areas that need it most. Competing in a capital-intensive environment, wireless carriers need long-term 
certainty of ongoing support to invest, deploy, maintain, and update their networks that provide vital 
mobile broadband services in rural areas. As the best example, certainty should come in the form of 
sufficient and predictable USF support in both the implementation ofMFII and the transition away from 
legacy support mechanisms over the next several years. 
Under your leadership, we urge the Commission to meet its statutory directive and ensure that the latest 
mobile broadband services are available across the nation, especially in rural America, and we thank you 
for your attention to this critically important issue. 
United States Senator United States Senator 
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DEAN HELLER 
United States Senator 
HEIDI HEITKAMP 
United States Senator 
RICHARD BURR 
United States Senator 
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TAMMY BALDWIN 
United States Senator 
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO 
United States Senator 
THOM TULLIS 
United States Senator 
RONWYDEN 
United States Senator 
THAD COCHRAN 
United States Senator 
DEB FISCHER 
United States Senator 
United States Senator 
United States Senator 
MICHAEL F. BENNET 
United States Senator 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR. 
United States Senator 
JERRY MORAN 
United States Senator 
DICK DURBIN 
United States Senator 
CORY GARDNER 
United States Senator 
United States Senator 
ROY BLUNT 
United States Senator 
AL FRANKEN 
United States Senator 
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United States Senator 
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GARY PETERS 
United States Senator 
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO 
United States Senator 
ELIZ HETH WARREN 
Unite States Senator 
United States Senator 
JEFF MERKLEY 
United States Senator 
MARIA CANTWELL 
United States Senator 
JOHNHOEVEN 
United States Senator