Federal Communications Commission FCC 18-29
STATEMENT, DISSENTING IN PART, OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90; ETC Annual Reports and Certifications, WC Docket 
No. 14-58; Establishing Just and Reasonable Rates for Local Exchange Carriers, WC Docket No. 
07-135; Developing a Unified Intercarrier Compensation Regime, CC Docket No. 01-92 
Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission took a series of meaningful steps to 
help connect rural America to broadband.  This effort made it easier for carriers serving rural areas to 
offer consumers standalone broadband service.  It also opened a new frontier for small carriers serving 
rural communities by providing them with the opportunity to receive model-based support from the 
universal service fund.  These actions were extraordinarily complex, but they set the agency on a course 
to improve service in some of our most remote communities.  Today, we continue on this path by making 
small but important adjustments to our rules.  These changes will adjust limitations on support allowances 
and bring clarity to permissible expenses.  They have my support.  
However, I dissent in part on the rulemaking associated with this effort.  It fails to ask any 
questions about how to protect rural consumers who lack other service options if they find they are on the 
losing end of discriminatory network practices in the wake of the FCC’s net neutrality repeal.  This is 
wrong.  It deserves discussion and our failure to do so is an unfortunate abdication of our most basic 
consumer protection duties.