STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Petition of USTelecom for Forbearance Pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 160(c) from 
Enforcement of Obsolete ILEC Legacy Regulations That Inhibit Deployment of Next-
Generation Networks, WC Docket No. 14-192, Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization,
WC Docket No. 11-42, Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90.
If you want to make way for the new, you need to get rid of the old.  That is what we do today 
with the forbearance petition that is before us.  Guided by the issues raised in this filing, we comb through 
relics in our rules and scrap policies that reflect a communications era that predates the digital age.  
To this end, we discard stale requirements for stand-alone long-distance service.  We remove 
duplicative policies for wholesale services.  And we dispense with practices that were built for 
narrowband rather than broadband markets.  To the extent that issues raised here are the subject of 
broader proceedings, we commit to addressing them in other fora.  We should do so expeditiously.  I 
think this approach is modern and principled.  As a result, this decision has my support.