Federal Communications Commission FCC 13-18 STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI Re: Rural Call Completion, WC Docket No. 13-39 Since the Commission first started receiving complaints about rural call completion issues, the evidence has grown overwhelming: in too many towns across the country, the basic ability of all Americans to reliably receive phone calls—a bedrock of America’s communication policy—has come into doubt. This has serious economic, safety, and other consequences. We’ve seen some evidence of improvement, but not nearly enough. And although, as we’ve come to learn, the causes of rural call failures can be complex and the responsible parties difficult to trace, one thing is clear: This has got to stop. The FCC has a fundamental responsibility to ensure phone calls complete reliably. Today’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is the next important step in an ongoing, multipronged strategy to attack this difficult problem. My colleagues and I take very seriously any proposal to increase data collection and reporting burdens on communications providers. And we have no illusions—the proposals in today’s item may impose meaningful new burdens on some carriers. But we must get to the bottom of this issue. The data we propose to collect here will allow us to do that, and to vigorously enforce our rules. I thank my colleagues for their support of these proposals.