Federal Communications Commission FCC 12-20 STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI Re: Amendment of Parts 1 and 22 of the Commission’s Rules with Regard to the Cellular Service, Including Changes in Licensing of Unserved Area; Amendment of the Commission’s Rules with Regard to Relocation of Part 24 to Part 2; Interim Restrictions and Procedures for Cellular Service Applications, WT Docket No. 12-40, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order (FCC 12-20). Today we take another important step in our work to reform the FCC, reduce unnecessary administrative burdens, and increase regulatory parity. We are proposing to migrate the 800 MHz cellular spectrum from a site-based to a geographic-based licensing system, which will reduce licensing and filing burdens relating to use of the spectrum. The 800 MHz Cellular Radiotelephone Service is the band that spawned the mobile revolution roughly 30 years ago, and its unique site-by-site licensing model helped bring mobile service to all Americans, even in remote rural areas. But the original licensing model has outlived its original utility. It’s time to transition from the old site-based licensing model to a more flexible geographically-licensed model. The new licensing model for 800 MHz will be the same as our more recent, flexibly licensed bands, such as PCS, AWS, and the 700 MHz band. We’ll implement this with a two-stage transition using auctions of “overlay licenses” to ensure efficiency and convey more flexible rights to license holders. The NPRM also proposes several changes to the Cellular rules to update or eliminate outdated technical provisions and data collection requirements to reduce administrative burdens on licensees. This item proposes to eliminate seven unnecessary data collections, which, if adopted, will bring to 32 the number of unnecessary data collections we have eliminated. The Commission’s actions to end these data collections – and eliminate more than 210 regulations – are consistent with two Executive Orders that called on federal agencies to review rules and regulations and ensure they are cost-effective and don’t place unnecessary burdens on industry. I’m pleased to thank CTIA for its petition, which spurred this rulemaking, as well as NTCA, and RTG – the Rural Telecommunications Group – for their comments and insight. We look forward to comments from all interested parties to ensure the transition is a success. Thank you to the staff of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau for their hard work and creative thinking on ways in which we can remove regulatory barriers, make more spectrum available for critical services, and increase spectrum flexibility.