Remarks of FCC’s Gigi Sohn at Fiber on Fire Conference

When I learned the theme of this conference, “Fiber on Fire,” I thought it was fitting that I would be here. That’s because when it comes to fiber deployment, the Federal Communications Commission is fired up to ensure that Americans have a fast and vibrant Internet ecosystem.

We view ourselves as the public’s representative in the Internet revolution. In fact, Congress said it’s our job to maximize the benefits of communications networks for the American people. We take that role very seriously. To that end, we are working to help lift barriers to broadband deployment. We know you are facing some significant barriers. Right now there is no easy way to figure out what infrastructure currently exists, and even when you do know what infrastructure could be used to ease deployment, you’re faced with bureaucratic delays....

I’m sure most of you learned that the FCC is not afraid to take action to promote broadband deployment when we addressed some state restrictions on community broadband. The cities of Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina wanted to expand their fiber broadband services to areas that were receiving substandard service or no service at all from existing providers. However, these expansions were prevented by state laws. Understandably, the cities didn’t like that much. And I can tell you that the people that were dealing with the substandard service didn’t like it either. So the Electric Power Board, or EPB, of Chattanooga and the City of Wilson filed petitions with the FCC asking us to preempt their state laws. Ultimately the FCC found that parts of these laws are barriers to broadband deployment under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and, therefore, we could pre-empt them. Now the FCC respects the important role of state governments in our federal system and we don’t take preemption of state laws lightly. But when state laws directly conflict with Federal laws and policy, we are not afraid to take action. We have a legal mandate to promote broadband deployment and we used that authority to ensure these communities could reach consumers that need fast, fair, and open Internet at a reasonable price.