STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
Re: Commission Seeks Public Comment in 2012 Biennial Review of Telecommunications 
Regulations, CG Docket No. 13-29, EB Docket No. 13-35, IB Docket No. 13-30, ET 
Docket
No.13-36, PS Docket No. 13-31, WT Docket No. 13-32, WC Docket No. 13-33, Public 
Notice.
During my first week in office, I recommended that our Biennial Review “should 
take the form of Commission-level action rather than Bureau-level recommendations.”1  
Today, we are well on our way to accomplishing that goal.  In this Public Notice, the 
Commission has committed to issuing Notices of Proposed Rulemaking addressing the 
recommendations contained in the biennial report within five months of that report’s 
release.
The communications marketplace is undergoing revolutionary change as we 
transition to an all-IP world.  This Biennial Review therefore serves as an ideal 
opportunity for us to: (1) identify those regulations that are “no longer necessary in the 
public interest as the result of meaningful economic competition between providers of 
[telecommunications] service”; and (2) “repeal or modify” any such regulations.  47 
U.S.C. § 161.    
Because of today’s item, I am optimistic that this year’s Biennial Review will not 
simply be an academic exercise.  The biennial report will not sit on a shelf collecting 
dust, and the staff’s many hours of labor compiling it will not be wasted.  Rather, I am 
hopeful that this audit will lead to meaningful and timely Commission action.  And to 
help us achieve this goal, I encourage all stakeholders to participate actively in the 
process.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on this Biennial Review in the 
months to come and thank them for collaborating with me to improve this item.      
 
  
1 See Statement of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on FCC’s Final Plan for Retrospective 
Analysis of Existing Rules, May 18, 2012 (available at 
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-314165A1.pdf).