Remarks of FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai on Receiving the 2015 Jerry B. Duvall Public Service Award

I am honored to accept the Jerry B Duvall Public Service Award...I also appreciate this opportunity to address the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies.

I look forward to reviewing Chairman Wheeler’s proposed resolution of the US Telecom forbearance petition in the coming weeks. And I hold out hope that the Federal Communications Commission will revise our aging telephone system rules in light of the new, competitive marketplace. Outdated regulatory roadblocks are bad for consumers, bad for infrastructure investment, and bad for our nation’s economic competitiveness. After all, networks don’t have to be built. Risks don’t have to be taken. Capital doesn’t have to be invested. When the FCC makes it less attractive for companies to connect the American people, those companies will find other places to put their money. And here is why, ultimately, all of this matters. The digital revolution is unleashing a tremendous amount of entrepreneurship and innovation. And the Internet is also putting people in charge of their own lives in unprecedented ways.