STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL Re: Inquiry Concerning the Deployment of Advanced Telecommunications Capability to All Americans in a Reasonable and Timely Fashion, and Possible Steps to Accelerate Such Deployment Pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as Amended by the Broadband Data Improvement Act, GN Docket No. 09-137; A National Broadband Plan for Our Future, GN Docket No. 09-51. This nation has made great strides in developing and deploying broadband infrastructure and services since the Commission issued the first Section 706 Report in 1999. Today, a wide variety of innovative services are provided to consumers over copper, cable, fiber, wireless and satellite infrastructure that simply did not exist a decade ago. While we should always strive to do better, we should also learn from what America has achieved in the broadband market thus far. We must take great care to seek accurate and complete information that is useful to assess the state of broadband deployment. This item, which I support, reflects the benefits of the additional guidance Congress has given the Commission. Our resulting assessment should be improved by that guidance, our concurrent efforts in the National Broadband Plan proceeding, and the availability of more granular and expansive Form 477 data.