Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR

Re: 	Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90.

When Americans spend their hard-earned dollars on fast Internet connections, they expect to get what they’re paying for.  And rightly so.  They expect the speeds they’ve been promised so their kids can do their homework at night.  They expect the quality they’ve been promised so they can run their home businesses.  And they expect the responsiveness they’ve been promised so their family can connect on a video chat.
Their expectations should be highest when the Internet infrastructure that carriers build to their homes is constructed with universal service dollars.  After all, consumers contribute billions of dollars each year to support these infrastructure builds, and carriers have committed to meeting performance benchmarks.  Yet for decades, while Commission after Commission has allocated these billions of dollars worth of funds, the agency has never required or held carriers accountable to these types of specific performance requirements.  And that’s a shame because, as I visit rural communities in this job, I hear from Americans that often express doubt that they’re getting what they’ve paid for.  With this Order today, the full Commission votes for the first time on these uniform performance metrics and requirements.  
In doing so, we also respect the privacy of homeowners by clarifying that carriers need not put Whitebox monitoring devices inside a customer’s house.  From my time on the road, I doubt it would go uniformly well if an official knocked on a door and told the homeowner that the government wanted them to install a device to monitor their Internet usage.  So today’s decision now recognizes that carriers can meet their obligations without that type of intrusive measure.  
I am also glad that we reject requests today that would have limited the performance test to only a portion of the network.  I understand that carriers are not directly in control of intermediate networks, but I also know that these carriers have promised the Commission that they would offer a level of service in exchange for universal service funding.  I know, perhaps even more importantly, that they’ve promised their customers a certain level of service.  So they need to use their funding wisely to ensure that they have sufficient transport to give their customers what they rightly expect.
I am proud that this item will help ensure that Americans get what they pay for.  And I want to thank the Wireline Competition Bureau for its work on the item.  It has my support.



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