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so Mr chairman thank you uh welcome to
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Wharton it's good to be here so you are
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the chairman of the FCC which oversees
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Telecom Media Tech type issues uh and a
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big thing that you deal with all the
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time is broadband so from your
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perspective how's the US doing on
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broadband well we've uh focused the FCC
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on broadband because wired and wireless
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Broadband high-speed internet is our
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Central platform for economic growth and
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Innovation for years to come uh in many
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many ways things are going really well
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for the US when it comes to broadband so
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think about where we were four years ago
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if we were talking about mobile
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broadband we would have been talking
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about mobile Innovation and we would
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have been saying hey in Japan and South
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Korea uh there's incredible mobile
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innovation in Europe they're ahead of us
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on 3G infrastructure so Flash Forward
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now uh the US has regained Global
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Leadership in mobile broadband uh on
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infrastructure the US is the first
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country in the world getting to scale
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at 4G LTE the next generation of mobile
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broadband no one else at scale is even
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close so we are the world's tested for
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4G LTE applications and services on the
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Innovation side it's a completely
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different world you know around the
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country they're using American apps
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whether it's Twitter Facebook or Google
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uh that's what the rest of the world is
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using a major change in four years and
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then think about uh operating systems so
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four years ago the percentage of mobile
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devices globally that had americanmade
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operating systems was under 20% today
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it's over 80% that's a very very fast
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change and so we uh uh are strongly
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positioned to continue to lead the world
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when it comes to mobile broadband uh an
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incredibly important platform for
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Innovation and economic growth but we
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have some real challenges in order to
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keep that going so talk a little bit
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more about some of the things that the
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agency has done over the past several
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years to promote that kind of broadband
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growth and and what are you doing right
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now going forward I know there's a lot
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of talk about a spectrum crunch about
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not enough capacity going forward so
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what's what's on the table well you know
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one of the things that that that we did
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at the FCC uh starting four years ago
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was focus on broadband focus on the
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opportunities focus on the challenges
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you know uh uh uh making sure that we
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were removing barriers to
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Broadband buildout whether wired or
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Wireless uh uh freeing up Spectrum for
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mobile broadband uh spectrum is you know
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the invisible infrastructure that makes
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this all work um uh one of the things
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that's happened is that success around
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mobile broadband is breeding a next
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generation of problems so the more that
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we use mobile broadband in the US the
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more that we use datar applications and
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services the more demand there is on
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Spectrum well spectrum is a scarce
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resource and Spectrum planning in the US
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never anticipated this kind of demand so
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we're in a global bandwidth race I I
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think this race is like the Space Race
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where uh uh the winner will see benefits
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in terms of innovation and economic
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growth that will last for years to come
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every country around the world wants to
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be the leader when it comes to broadband
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we're in a strong position now but we're
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going to run into a wall on spectrum
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because the demand for spectrum is
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vastly exceeding Supply and we've got to
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both use the old policy tools in a
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really smart way and develop new tools
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to free up Spectrum to drive Spectrum
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efficiency so that uh we can keep on
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encouraging the growth and development
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of the mobile economy so one of those
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new tools is something called incentive
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of auctions which uh the FCC just
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launched the proceeding on a couple of
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days ago can you talk a little bit about
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what that process is and and what are
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some of the benefits so we're we're
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proud of this idea incentive auctions uh
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you we don't uh here's what doesn't
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happen when you when you get to the FCC
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someone doesn't come and say hey welcome
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to the FCC you're the chairman here's
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the warehouse with all the Spectrum you
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can put on the market and make everyone
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happy that doesn't happen because all
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the easy pickings on Spectrum have
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already been taken and done and
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auctioned so our challenge now is to
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since we can't create new Spectrum
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although hopefully we'll see tech
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technology innovations that will help an
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efficiency Etc um we have to identify
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areas of underutilized spectrum
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inefficiently utilized spectrum and
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reallocate them to mobile broadband one
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of those areas is broadcast television
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Spectrum where historically we've
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overallocated TV stations so that for
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example in New York there are 28 full
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power TV stations it doesn't make sense
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um but how do you reallocate that
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Spectrum to mobile broadband
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particularly when that Spectrum the
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broadcast Spectrum isn't National
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uniform Spectrum it's a checkerboard of
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spectrum in different markets using
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different frequencies that isn't really
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usable for mobile broadband so the
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incentive auction idea is a mechanism to
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give broadcasters an opportunity to
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[Music]
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and you're using it on their networks
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they have licensed spectrum and
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exclusive use of the spectrum that
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they've
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licensed um when you're using your
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device not on the cellular networks but
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on
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Wifi you're actually using spectrum that
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was allocated on a different model and
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that model is put it out there and let
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any um uh innovator use it what we found
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is that both models are very important
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they both generate uh Innovation
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investment economic activity and we need
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to um uh continue to develop both models
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uh so freeing up Spectrum for licensed
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auction use has tremendous
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value taking the unlicensed concept to
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the next level I believe will have
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tremendous value too and so in The
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Proposal that we released on incentive
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auctions the auction that we free up
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primarily
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will go to uh adding Spectrum to our
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licensed mobile market where we really
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need it but we've also identified
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Spectrum to create for the first time a
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national uniform band for unlicensed
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Spectrum usable for
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Broadband that will become part of a
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balanced
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ecosystem that will uh uh really help
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Drive uh the mobile ecosystem and I also
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think gives the US a unique
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opportunity to be a world leader not
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only in Spectrum policy but in the uh
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Innovative uh Technologies and services
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that are built on the Spectrum platform
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so to take a step back and and ask about
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Broadband in general including wired
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Broadband one of the things that uh the
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FCC did early on in your term was adopt
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the so-called open internet rules
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dealing with what what's often called
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The Net Neutrality issue can you speak a
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little bit about how that fits in with
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this agenda that you're talking about on
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broadband yeah you know what we want in
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the United States is um a framework
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rules of the road that drive massive
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amounts of private investment and
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Innovation both
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to Edge early stage technology
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innovators and disruptors and to the
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Broadband networks wired and wireless
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that carry the applications and
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services uh when I got the job there was
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a major war between technology companies
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and internet service providers about net
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neutrality it was a destructive war that
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wasn't providing clear rules of the road
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and was having a negative effect on
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investment Innovation not a positive one
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we developed uh a framework um that for
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the first time put in place rules to
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preserve internet freedom preserve the
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ability of innovators to innovate to
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come up with an idea put it on the
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internet reach an audience and let the
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market decide um whether it's a good
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idea or a bad idea so the rules preserve
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that first time we've ever had rules
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like that in the United States so a very
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big deal giving confidence to um uh apps
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and services internet innovators while
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also providing the certainty that the
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network companies need to to invest in
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their networks to upgrade them and to
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give us faster speeds and so in the last
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two years since we adopted this
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framework we've seen an increase in
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Innovation and investment across the
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Broadband ecosystem uh in terms of you
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know Innovative applications uh and
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services uh we've seen uh uh rapidly
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growing investment and unbelievable
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Innovation we've also seen uh very
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significant increases in investment in
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wired and wireless Broadband networks
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and we've seen both of this even in a
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period uh characterized of course by a
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very challenging economy mhm so what are
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are there other ways that you look to
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unleash that kind of uh competitive
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energy of the market or or use Market
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forces as opposed to having to tell
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companies you do this and you do that
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well uh the answer is yes we've adopted
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uh an approach that recognizes the power
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of free markets to drive investment and
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innovation in uh value for consumers one
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of the things that we worry about in
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this space and it's always been an issue
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in the space is whether uh there's the
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competition we need to drive a
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successful free market and uh that's
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something that is an issue will remain
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an issue now I'm a big fan of efficiency
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enhancing transactions that are
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consistent with a healthy robust uhet
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market and in fact at the FCC in the
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mobile space for example uh over the
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four years that I've been there we've
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approved uh literally hundreds of
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transactions involving uh spectrum and
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mobile companies and we've dramatically
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increased uh uh the speed of our reviews
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uh so they're happening much more
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quickly and transactions are getting
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through but we've also focused on
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transactions that present compet ition
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issues transactions that may require
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Spectrum divestures or other conditions
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and there was one transaction that we
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thought this transaction was just over
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the line it would significantly diminish
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competition in the US hurting investment
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hurting Innovation hurting consumers and
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making it less likely that the free
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market could work and we blocked that
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transaction that was AT&T mobile right
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so so last question going forward what's
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your metric for Success how do we
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understand how should someone understand
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if if if you and the agency have
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achieved your goals I think it's us
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leadership in wired and wireless
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Broadband uh We've regained Global
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Leadership in a series of key metrics we
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have the opportunity to continue that uh
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but we have challenges that we can list
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uh Spectrum crunch dealing with that
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driving uh faster Broadband speeds in
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the United
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States uh preserving
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competition uh we've got to keep working
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on getting these right
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so that we drive uh Broadband deployment
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and adoption everywhere and that we do
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it not just looking you know inside our
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borders but
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recognizing that we're in a global
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bandwidth race that in today's world uh
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talent and capital can flow anywhere in
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the world and that we need for the us to
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have a strategic bandwidth Advantage so
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that the capital and the talent flow
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here and we can continue to innovate on
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the broad band platform as the world
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leader for years to come hey thanks so
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much for spending time with us thanks
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[Music]
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Kevin
