Commissioner O'Rielly Statement on 2019 Broadband Deployment Report

To be clear: according to our data collection, which has been rightfully criticized, approximately nine million Americans still lack access to even 10/1 Mbps service, and our finding here does not deny that point. However, our statutory mandate is not only to determine whether all Americans currently have access to advanced telecommunications capabilities, but also whether progress in deploying such services is proceeding at a reasonable and timely pace, and an affirmative response to the latter inquiry is completely consistent with the facts on the ground. I remain steadfast in my commitment to bringing access to those Americans currently without any broadband option at all and look forward to further actions by this Commission on this front, including, above all, the implementation of the Remote Areas Fund (RAF) auction in some form or fashion. At the same time, there is no doubt that rapid and robust progress in deployment, particularly in the wireless space, is evident according to the albeit imperfect data we have.

I remain dismayed by the report’s reliance on purported “insufficient evidence” as a basis for maintaining—for yet another year in a row—an outdated siloed approach to evaluating fixed and mobile broadband, rather than examining both markets as one. Data shows that fixed and mobile service are undoubtedly substitutable for many Americans and that fixed and mobile providers are in fierce competition with one another for customers.

 


Commissioner O'Rielly Statement on 2019 Broadband Deployment Report