STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90, ETC Annual Reports and Certifications, WC 
Docket No. 14-58, Developing a Unified Intercarrier Compensation Regime, CC Docket No. 01-
92.
For too long rural consumers seeking to get standalone broadband service have been told that in 
order to do so they would have to pay for a voice line in addition to broadband—or worse, that such an 
offering is simply not available.  Sensing that they were getting the raw end of the bargain, rural 
consumers have complained to their providers, complained to the Better Business Bureau, and 
complained to this Commission.
Today we heed their call.  This Order takes steps to correct the strange confluence of history and 
law that produced this situation.  As a result, rural consumers finally will be able to order standalone 
broadband service—just like their urban counterparts.  I fully support this aspect of today’s decision.  In 
fact, I believe this result is overdue.
This Order also updates other aspects of universal service policy.  It provides rate-of-return 
carriers serving rural communities a new option to receive model-based universal service funding, puts in 
place additional measures to keep our universal service program fiscally accountable, and updates the rate 
of return used in our program to better reflect modern commercial reality.  I support these changes, too.
For rate-of-return carriers, these changes come not a moment too soon.  These are companies that 
are deeply invested in rural America, but they face daunting challenges bringing high-speed services to 
some of the most remote and difficult to serve areas in the country.  So we need to monitor the reforms 
we put in place in order to ensure that they result in real progress and bring broadband to hard-to-reach 
places.  We also need to make sure that the places left out of the reforms in this Order—including Alaska 
and Tribal Lands—are not forgotten.  The connectivity needs in these locations are profound.  We owe it 
to their residents to act as quickly as possible.  
Finally, it is important to recognize that over time our high-cost universal service policies have 
grown increasingly complex.  Our work here is no exception.  I worry that this complexity can deny 
carriers dependent on the universal service system the certainty they need to confidently invest in their 
network infrastructure.  Nonetheless, today’s Order represents a step forward—especially with respect to 
standalone broadband.  But looking ahead I am hopeful that when new opportunities arise to simplify our 
universal service rules in a manner that is good for rural consumers and bound to inspire investment—we 
will seize them.