Quotes

Throughout the history of communications, we've seen that the country that sets the pace in rolling out each new generation of wireless technology gains an economic edge.

As chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, I've logged more than 5,000 miles driving across the country to see first-hand how digital technologies are unleashing opportunity in U.S. communities and to understand the connectivity challenges many Americans face.

Unfortunately, Lifeline, known in some circles as the 'Obamaphone' program, is plagued by waste, fraud, and abuse.

As a native of Parsons, Kansas, a small town near the Oklahoma border, I have a deep respect for tribal nations in Oklahoma. But this federal spending in Oklahoma is outrageous. And excessive subsidies have made the state a playground for Lifeline fraud.

Everyone believes that artificial or prerecorded calls - 'robocalls,' as they're known - are awful. They're intrusive. They're unwanted.

Some claim that the Obama FCC's regulations are necessary to protect Internet openness. History proves this assertion false. We had a free and open Internet prior to 2015, and we will have a free and open Internet once these regulations are repealed.

Consumers have the right to know important information about the service they are choosing to purchase and/or use.

Beginning in the Clinton administration, there was, for nearly two decades, a broad bipartisan consensus that the best Internet policy was light-touch regulation - rules that promoted competition and kept the Internet 'unfettered by federal or state regulation.' Under this policy, a free and open Internet flourished.

I'll never forget the first time I heard Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Partita in E Major' for violin. It was in a late-1980s television commercial, of all things. As a young violinist at the time, it enchanted me - it was so pure, precise, and unadorned.

I've talked a lot about the need to promote digital empowerment: to enable any American who wants high-speed Internet access, or broadband, to get it.

Regulatory mandates have a disproportionate effect on small businesses.

In my first remarks as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to the agency's terrific staff, I stressed that one of my top priorities would be to close the digital divide - the gap between those who use cutting-edge communications services and those who do not.

Gigabit Opportunity Zones would enable Americans to become participants in, rather than spectators of, the digital economy. They would be a powerful solution to the digital divide. I hope our elected officials will give the idea serious consideration.

It's vital that low-income Americans have access to communications services, including broadband Internet, which Lifeline helps to achieve.

Hyperbolic headlines always attract more attention than mundane truths.

Scammers and spammers use spoofing to disguise their identity, to trick consumers into answering unwanted calls, and to hide from authorities.

There is no reason why any legitimate caller should be spoofing an unassigned or invalid phone number. It's just a way for scammers to evade the law.

Whereas robocalls are ever-present, the problem of contraband cellphones in prisons - that is, cellphones illegally being used by inmates - is generally out-of-sight and too easily ignored. But the need for action is just as clear.

High-speed Internet access, or broadband, is giving entrepreneurs anywhere an unprecedented chance to disrupt entire industries and transform our country.

Next-generation networks are hard to build. It takes a lot of money and effort to lay fiber, install wireless infrastructure, build satellite earth stations, and more. It also requires a reasonably certain business case for deployment, which is all too often hard to prove in parts of the country with sparse population and/or lower incomes.

Infrastructure investment is critical to closing the digital divide in our country and bringing high-speed Internet access to more rural Americans.

To bring the benefits of the digital age to all Americans, the FCC needs to make it easier for companies to build and expand broadband networks. We need to reduce the cost of broadband deployment, and we need to eliminate unnecessary rules that slow down or deter deployment.

I believe that the FCC and Tribal Nations share the same goal-ensuring high-speed Internet access to anyone who wants it, while respecting and preserving sites with historic, religious, and cultural significance to Tribes.

Protecting consumers goes beyond just fighting illicit schemes. It also involves making sure that they get what they pay for. Unfortunately, rural telephone customers aren't always assured of that.

Whether you live in a big city or a small town, a call placed by a loved one, friend, or customer should go through.