STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER MIGNON L. CLYBURN
Re: Regulation of Business Data Services for Rate-of-Return Local Exchange Carriers, WC Docket 
No. 17-144.
In an increasingly digitally dependent society, connectivity is a game-changer.  
It is particularly powerful for small and rural communities.  It allows small, locally-owned 
businesses to become major players in the national and global economy, generating and enabling 
sustainable social and economic growth right there at home.  And Business Data Services (BDS), 
formerly known as Special Access, play an essential role in supporting that much needed next generation 
mobile broadband deployment, as well as public safety operations, and school and health care 
connectivity – all underscoring the importance of reliable, robust, and affordable communication services.
In this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, we recognize that areas served by rate-of-return carriers 
are generally less dense, less populated, and have fewer competitive options, when compared to areas 
served by price cap carriers.  
This means that the data collected for price cap carriers, and the competitive market test 
framework which the majority adopted in the 2017 BDS order, are not appropriate when it comes to 
evaluating those rate-of-return carriers’ service areas that serve mostly small and rural communities.  
Today’s item will allow us to develop a full and accurate record which we need if we are to 
eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens and properly assess the availability of competitive options for 
last-mile BDS services in those areas.  Make no mistake – seeking comment to develop a full record is but 
an important first step to understand the state of the market and just what is at stake. The next step is 
much more of a challenge.  
The regulations we are proposing to evaluate, and eliminate if an area is deemed competitive, are 
designed to ensure that BDS is offered to those businesses that form the economic backbone of 
communities across the country at just and reasonable rates.  I hope that the forthcoming record will shed 
light on whether the proposed changes, if adopted, will weaken the Commission’s ability to protect 
consumers or prevent price hikes for small business data services in communities that need those services 
the most.
I will never object to a framework that minimizes regulatory burdens, when there is evidence that 
market forces are sufficient to discipline prices, but we must not repeat the mistakes of the 2017 BDS 
order – where the majority chased deregulation at all costs.  We need reliable data to determine a 
competitive test. We need to assess the number of providers necessary for true competition to discipline 
this market, and there needs to be appropriate geographic and product market definitions in our analysis 
which is why further stakeholder engagement is needed.  Without it, we run the risk that the next step the 
Commission takes, could end in a result I cannot abide:  a deeper digital divide.  
I would like to thank to my colleagues for agreeing to my request to seek comment, on whether 
there is sufficient competition to eliminate ex-ante price regulation for higher capacity BDS offerings, in 
areas served by rate-of-return carriers, instead of proposing such elimination based on a market analysis 
that excludes these carriers’ market areas.  I also thank the team from the Wireline Competition Bureau, 
for their dedication and their hard work on this item.