Federal Communications Commission FCC 07J-4 
STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN KEVIN J. MARTIN
In the Matter of High-Cost Universal Service Support; Federal-State Joint Board on 
Universal Service, WC Docket No. 05-337; CC Docket No. 96-45
Today, the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service recommends to the Commission a 
number of important proposals to address the structure of the high-cost universal service program.  I want 
to thank my colleagues on the Federal-State Joint Board for their contributions and efforts to improve the 
universal service fund.  It is essential that we take actions that preserve and advance the benefits of the 
universal service program.
The United States and the Commission have a long history and tradition of making sure that rural 
areas of the country are connected and have similar opportunities for communications as other areas.  I 
believe our universal service program must continue to promote investment in rural America’s 
infrastructure and ensure access to communications services that are comparable to those available in 
urban areas today, as well as provide a platform for delivery of advanced services.
I support today’s Joint Board recommendation to revise the current definition of supported 
services to include broadband Internet access service.  Congress did not envision that services supported 
by universal service would remain static. Instead, it views universal service as an evolving level of 
communications services.  With each passing day, more Americans interact and participate in the 
technological advances of our digital information economy.  Deployment of these telecommunications 
and information technologies support and disseminate an ever increasing amount of services essential to 
education, public health and safety.  A modern and high quality communications infrastructure is essential 
to ensure that all Americans, including those residing in rural communities, have access to the economic, 
educational, and healthcare opportunities available on the network.  Our universal service program must 
continue to promote investment in rural America’s infrastructure and ensure access to communications 
services that are comparable to those available in urban areas, as well as provide a platform for delivery 
of advanced services.
The broadband program recommended by the Joint Board is tasked primarily with disseminating 
broadband Internet access services to unserved areas.  This is a laudable goal as we work to make 
broadband services available to all Americans across the nation.  As proposed, the program would have 
limited resources.  Additional support for this broadband program could be made available by requiring 
competitive ETCs to demonstrate their own costs and meet the support threshold in the same manner as 
rural providers. 
I am also pleased that the Joint Board supports reverse auctions as a mechanism by which the 
new broadband and mobility funds would be administered.  I continue to support the use of reverse 
auctions to determine high-cost universal service funding for eligible telecommunications carriers.  I 
believe that reverse auctions provide a technologically and competitively neutral means of restraining
fund growth and prioritizing investment in rural and high-cost areas of the country.