people with hiv/aids through their borders, to remove them immediately. on behalf of the international aids society i express our sincere gratitude for the support the u.s. government and civil society partners have already shown for their confidence. we look forward to it convening the aids 2012 conference in d.c. and working with a strong partnership with others working in the aids crisis in the united states and across the world. thank you very much. [applause] ..

in the united states incidents have fallen from about 130 dozen cases a year in the mid-1980s to about 56,000 cases a year currently. excuse me. [laughter] our investments in hiv treatment of falso born fruitford gillon 1988 there were no effective treatment for hiv while today we have more than two dozen treatments that are saving lives and extending lives of people

with hiv. the development of these medications is important and it is the glimp important to show they are available. that is why the president signed bipartisan legislation reauthorizing the ryan white hiv/aids program which provides care and treatment to over 500,000 people living with hiv/aids in the united states. he is also determined to enact comprehensive health reform that will make insurance coverage more available and secure for all americans including people living with hiv. as you have heard from secretary clinton and sebelius and ambassador goosby we extend overseas. with the leadership of former president george w. bush members of both parties in congress and the american public including many in our audience today we have made america the world's leader in fighting the global hiv/aids pandemic. the pepfar program and other international efforts have given millions of people access to treatment services were done previously existed. and it may president obama announces the administration will build on the successes

bedevilling pepfar funding over the second six years, expanding support for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases, ramping up assistance from internal chaliff khalfan importantly integrating these programs in order to better respond to the lives people live and the health challenges they face. holding the international aids conference in the united states in 2012 will give us an opportunity to reflect on our accomplishments in addressing hiv/aids but also give us an opportunity to learn from our global partners. the president is thrilled the international aids society will hold this conference in washington d.c. and we look forward to working with their local and federal partners to make this conference a success. we have major accomplishments to celebrate but we also know that much work remains to be done so as we commemorate world aids day what recommit ourselves to increasing awareness about how to prevent the spread of hiv/aids and ensuring access to care to people living with the disease of this concludes our

offense. we bit like to thank you for joining us and thank you for your ongoing partnership with us on world aids day and every day of the year. thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> tonight on c-span2 "the communicators" with fcc commissioner meredith attwell baker. following that, a senate hearing on internet sales tactics. also a look at some of today's senate health care debate.

this week on "the communicators," a discussion with fcc commissioner meredith attwell baker. she discusses several issues currently before the fcc including net neutrality, the media ownership rules and federal broadband policies. >>host:meredith attwell baker is the newest republican commissioner on the federal communications commission and she is our guest this week on "the communicators." also here is kim hart of the hill newspaper to join in the questioning. commissioner baker if we could start with the issue of network neutrality, network management her. were you surprised that chairman genachowski emphasized has this is his priority issue? >> guest: i think i was surprised because he didn't necessarily have a heads up that was coming but certainly the

president outlined it in his campaign speeches so we knew this was a priority of the chairman. i think to discuss the that would like to start with something we agree on which is the fact we want to have an open internet and we want to have the free flow of lawful content on the internet and we all agree about that. i think for we disagree is whether consumers in innovation would best be served as with rules on network neutrality. i think i worry more about the unintended consequences of that. >> host: you voted to go ahead with the open, period on net neutrality, and that management but still at the same time expressed reservation. >> guest: correct. i am not convinced we have a problem that we need to address. there have been two instances really of bad actors and i think have been dealt with expeditiously and i think really what we are going to have to take a close data-driven record and to move forward and i am

actually varied whack happy with the chairman's process he has put in place. we have just appointed a technical advisory committee and we are going to have workshops to look at how networks actually operate so i think there's a tremendous opportunity for the industry to help us in this process. >> host: kim hart. >> guest: in the beginning of the process you have raised concerns that may be conclusions had been made before the process even began and that in the meeting you actually said you were prepared to dissent with respect to the whole initiative. what changed your mind? >> guest: i think the cooperative working environment we have with the fcc right now. the item originally introduced u.s. was very conclusion oriented and i think the chairman's office and the bureau has were very helpful in working with us to where we are asking questions, we are at the beginning of this process and not at the end and there isn't a determined and yet at this time. >> guest: okay and what about

network management? what does that mean to you and how would you like that definition to unfold as we go forward in gathering this data and asking these questions? >> guest: i think it is an evolving process and i don't think there is one definition. i am most familiar with the wireless networks and clearly there has to be prioritization on wireless networks for them to be able to work. i was recently at cable labs than they could have shown me the exact same slides the wireless industry has shown me as to how they have to prioritize some of their content and some of their package, so i think it is going to be an evolutionary discussion and there's not one definition yet that we know of but we will be working with the industry to make sure we come up with something reasonable. >> host: commissioner baker-- i want to pick up on something you said in your testimony about the votes to go ahead with a comment period on network management. we must be particularly careful before we rest extending any internet principals the mobile

broadband. what did he mean by that? >> guest: i think the way the wireless networks work is basically on a network management prioritization so as we move forward i am actually not clear how we could impose network neutrality rules on the wireless networks so i think we will leave it to the engineers and the discussions as we move forward in these workshops to see how we actually can do that. what we don't want to do here especially in the course of developing and national broadband plan is to anything that would harm the innovation and the investment in these networks. we are encouraging them to build up and make them faster and bigger better so we want to make sure we don't do anything to damage that. >> host: begin to follow-up from your testimony i also think important questions are outstanding outer legal authority to regulate broadband internet services that we need to explore. >> guest: i think jurisdiction is still a question here and i think certainly in what people were comfortable with the principals the fcc had enacted,

but there is clearly a dispute as to whether those principles were enforceable. there is a joint jurisdiction between the ftc and the fcc so we will have to move forward carefully. >> guest: you mentioned the last thing you want to do is hander or for any investment into these broadband networks. what you think is the best way to spur the deployment of broadband networks and to encourage that investment? >> guest: a great question and i think we are looking at that to the broadband plant due in february and that has been a very wide the encompassing effort. i think there has been 24 public notices so far over 30 workshops and field hearings. what we are learning is a bunch of different things and in the deployment area we have actually done a pretty good job. there of an economic incentives that don't tax networks. beers research had and development tax credits that have worked very well. i think that one the regulatory

environment we have created, which is allowed these networks to build out, kind of free of over burdensome regulation, i think that is in power the networks to be built and i think when we move forward with their national broadband planned we want to make sure we continue those incentives as well as find others. >> host: speaking of national broadband plant, another issue we want to talk to you about, could you give us a primer on your guiding philosophy when it comes to building out broadband? >> guest: sure. i have made pretty clear what i think my regulatory philosophies are and that is that i think competition in the marketplace allow consumers the best choice of whatever we can do to encourage private-sector investment in these networks is going to be the primary goal as far as i'm concerned because i think in the end consumers benefit from investment, innovation and competition. i think we have to be careful

what we do with the commission because both what we do and what we don't do has ramifications so we need to make sure we set up an economic environment, it regulatory environment that can allow this investment to flourish. >> host: do you believe the government does have a role in helping to reach areas that may be a private companies wouldn't? >> guest: i do. i think that is part of the importance of the mapping part of the broadband plan, that you should map and brian can't incentivize the private sector investment and possibly we need to look at how we need to use government subsidies to get broadband. as their digital economy continues to increase it is important for every american to have access to broadband. and. >> guest: touching on your previous experience at the commerce department, spectrum was a big part of your job there. your agency was responsible for managing the federal holdings of airwaves and as this broadband plan goes forward one thing we have heard over and over is that

there is a spectrum shortage or there is a concern that we won't have enough airwaves to meet the demand, especially in the wireless area, to make this idea of universal broadband a reality. what are some of the ideas you have in terms of spectrum in making sure that we optimize we have? >> guest: that is the great question kim. let's take a step back. i think we have actually done a good job, we have put three times as much spectrum out for commercial access currently in these networks are still just being built in the 700 megahertz area, so we are good today but what we don't have is a strategic plan for tomorrow so what we need to develop is a plan for a short-term or mid term and long term plan for commercial spectrum and let's take a look at some of the numbers. right now there are about 270 million subscribers. that only 40 million our internet broadband subscribers.

so, of what that means actually a view drill down one more to that they ages from 18 to 29, 93% of those are internet mobile subscribers of broadband, so our crisis is not today but it is going to be coming around the corner pretty quickly so we need to lay the groundwork for by 2021 everyone access the internet by mobile that we are prepared and america continue to be competitive. so i think your question says how we do that and it is that to be three-prong the answer. i think we need to find new spectrum. i think we need to leverage the spectrum the edics is currently more efficiently and i think we need to encourage new technologies of innovation in that area. >> guest: you also talked about being more flexible with spectrum policy. what he mean by that? >> that posed might leveraging the current specter management that we have more efficiently. when i am talking about sharing

spectrum of commercial and federal and i think that there's a lot that can be done in those areas. they almost all depend on a better databased than currently exists so i think one of the recommendations you are going to see is that we have a more user-friendly, more thorough database that can be used on a hour to hour, minute to minute basis. >> host: commissioner baker you talked about finding is spectrum. a couple of weeks ago there was some brouhaha about perhaps taking some of the broadcasters spectrum and giving it over to wireless. do you agree with that? >> guest: i think all ideas should be on the table. broadcasters have 294 megahertz of spectrum and what we are talking about for future networks is we are going to need and the range of 800 megahertz though it is not the golden egg. i think it might be part of the solution. what i think is at the discussions again for my role at ntia, we have a great broadcasting infrastructure

here. these people are part of our local and national dialogue so i don't think this discussion should be at all antibroadcast. the broadcasters are also looking for new business models. the mobile video standard was just that, so i think we ought to take a look at, to those broadcast rules need to be attached to the service with? what i guess i am saying is a comprehensive look at everything should be on the table. i don't think it should be antibroadcast. i think that we actually make come up with a solution that is a win-win. >> host: just a little bit about meredith attwell baker prior to being a confirmed as an fcc commissioner just earlier this year. she did serve as acting administrator of the national telecommunications and information administration which is part of the commerce department underneath president george w. bush's administration and you may remember her from the program when the nation made the switch over to digital tv.

kim hart is a reporter with the hill newspaper, writes "hillicon valley." next question please. >> guest: i guess following up on the spectrum question we know senator kerry in senator waxman have introduced the specter amendatory bills to get a better sense of what the agencies themselves have. since you are familiar with that is there a possibility that maybe reallocation of what the defense department for example has are the military has says access in terms of maybe some sharing of that spectrum as you mentioned before or do you have any ideas on that? >> guest: i think it is a valid question to ask. there is an executive order from president bush that called for a strategic plan and ntia did a federal strategic plan looking at the spectrum the federal agencies use. we need to do the same thing at the fcc and then we need to bring those two plants together and see if there is some room for us to you know, it possibly

maybe some of the department defense wants to use some of the commercial spectrum as well as obviously commercial in defense. we have one test bed together and we need to implement more test beds and certainly some of these technologies that are out there, cockman they have radios, these are technologies that are in development but that the dod as well as the commercial sector. they are going to make all of these things easier, to make sharing of spectrum. there are smart technologies where they can see when something is being used and new, so it really, we need to expedite that development and make it easier for them to be brought to market. yes, i think we certainly need to work together on this project. >> guest: i was just curious about the white spaces barcode reminded me of the software, to find the open airwaves. do you know if the fcc is moving

forward, they had approved a preliminary step but we haven't heard much since then since companies like google and microsoft to a behind this technology. >> guest: we have. we have and i think it is important. i think we are looking at some of the issues with wireless mics right now that are in the white spaces and as soon as we solve that problem, as to may be where to move them and again it is all part of the longbrake plan. you don't want to move wireless microphones to a place where you have to move them again so it is a long range planning process but i think we are close to really being able to fully implement white spaces. >> host: commissioner baker, chairman genachowski call this last week on "the communicators" that the sec made a decision that still would take six to 13 years to implement that decision when it comes to wireless spectrum. what are your thoughts about that? >> guest: that is historically true. i showed the scars of the

advanced wireless spectrum services spectrum that the department of defense has to congress to were those who bought the spectrum actually paid for the department defense moves of the department defense got new equipment and the commercial industry got the spectrum for the next generation of wireless services. it is a win-win but that coordination takes a while. hopefully we have laid the groundwork and it figured out where some of the bugs are and maybe we can do it better next time, may be quicker but yes it does take a while. >> host: you talk about finding is spectrum. it is a limited commodity, isn't it? >> guest: for instance we discussed the broadcasters spectrum. i don't ex-that we take all the broadcasters spectrum but i expect there might be summoned there that could be more efficiently used in a commercial wireless cents. i think the same is true for some of our other allocations. where in looking at a bunch of parts of the spectrum to see if there is a more efficient use of debt so that consumers can have

a wider authority of choices. >> host: another issue, and i want to return to the broadband development plan that is due in february. chairman rockefeller of the commerce committee, senator rockefeller, said he is worried that the plan will come to the congress and will be an incomplete roadmap. it will not be specific. >> guest: i appreciate chairman rockefeller's do you and you certainly, you want to make sure that we come-- comprehensively ten to all the data we have gathered. but it is impractical to think we are probably going to solve universal service within the plan. i left about the commission these days because all of these decade-old problems whether it is universal service or intercarrier compensation are special access, they are all are walking around the fcc saying if you sell me you have solved broadband for america, and it is just these problems we have been

stuck on before. my hope is we have a comprehensive look and can move forward to solve all of them but that probably won't be by the boeri 17th. i think we will have action plans shortly thereafter. hopefully this going to set out goals that we can make actionable work on throughout the next year. i think we will be very busy. 84 the federal part of broadband deployment comment you agree that with some on the condition that say the usf is outdated and love the way it is set up now? >> guest: i think there's no doubt that the universal service fund has actually achieved an awful lot before keeping america connected but in the change marketplace it is time to reevaluate the universal service fund. we need to do it in a transparent way and we need to do it in a cooperative way but i think it's time has come to be re-evaluated. >> guest: but you don't see

that happening before february, the deadline? >> i don't think we feel ready yet to vote on how that path forward is going to be. i am ready to put the wheels in motion to come up with a new plan but i don't think we are ready yet to say this is the direction universal service reform is going to take. >> guest: great. come february, is there one larger recommendation that you see as being essential that the fcc puts before congress? >> guest: i mentioned we thought deployment, we have a lot of progress in the deployment area aware i think we are lacking is in the adoption area so i think there will be some concrete-- there's also not a one-size-fits-all on adoption. there are problems because of the prize, because of digital literacy. their problems because of on line content. i think the fcc itself could do a much better educational part

in helping americans realize what the value is to broadband, and so i hope to see the fcc itself will use kind of as the digital television transition modeled to help educate americans as to how to utilize broadband better. >> host: meredith attwell baker if you could give us an update on your thinking of the media ownership rules. i know the fcc is due to do a review by luck. what is your philosophy? >> guest: people are extremely passionate about media ownership and the rules there. obviously the quadrennial review which is every four years is going to start in 2010. i think we have a changed marketplace and we need to look at that. i am particularly concerned when i see some of the small and mid-sized media markets having financial problems and as hard economic times. i am a courage began that it seems we are really putting ourselves on course to develop

rules that are actually going to be sustainable in court. as you probably know the head of the media bureau has started with workshops to discuss how we should go about formulating these rules so i am encouraged with the effort that we are going to make. >> guest: do you have any particular concerns with some of the consolidation going on with the proposed compact-- comcast mps the merger that will probably get a lot of scrutiny? >> guest: were charged to let the public interest in look at competition, localism and diversity. i certainly don't want to comment on something we may have the force your shirlee but i do think it is important to do this in a timely matter. i think the sirius xm took five and a day so i think it is imported to a timely and philosophically ifill the merger should be dealt with on the merger proceeding in front of you, that you shouldn't attach conditions that are extraneous to the actual deal in front of you.

>> host: next question. >> guest: hat what about internet parental controls? that has been a smaller issue but you have talked about what you feel which is a need for greater control for parents over what their kids are accessing on the internet. what is your philosophy regarding that and how you go forward with that? >> guest: thank you for ransoming-- asking. i have for stepdaughter's who were in the teenage to 20 age range and to watch them deal with the new media landscape is entirely different than the way we watch television ourselves. the television has become the laptop which has become the ipod. it always is seamlessly integrated but we have not empower parents are educated parents as to how to raise their children in this digital age, so i think chairman genachowski feels pretty passionate about this that we are going to move forward with this childrens ethno-i.t. linkers the technology that is out there and help educate the parents to know

we need better technology and we need better education so the next generation of children will have parents who feel empowered to let them watch what they want to watch and not watch what they should be watching. >> guest: said you see this as more of an educational campaign or lack of education on the parent's side to feel comfortable or confident in what the kids are doing? >> guest: there are technologies that are out there that are not well-known by the parents then they need to be used across all the platforms so hopefully we will be working with the industry's the leaking come up with solutions that did work across all the platforms since that is the way the kids watch media today. >> host: commissioner baker that speech to the issue of the very rapid change in telecommunications in our world today and is the fcc prepared? is the fcc up-to-date on all these changes and the way it is structured? >> guest: we are trying.

i think government agencies historically, the federal with the federal communications commission has always been that it is federal meaning government can be a couple of steps behind the industry. i think the new leadership has brought an excellent team into the fcc where we are trying to get out to see what is actually going on outside the walls of the government agencies and i am encouraged that we will have the relationships to actually deal with the realities as they exist as opposed to what our proceedings at the fcc blogs are allowed his comments in our proceedings now. i think we are working towards becoming a new media agency and because that entails an awful lot of education that we are working towards that. >> host: the structure of the commissioners themselves, you are really not allowed to meet with each other, is that correct? >> guest: because of the sunshine rules we do not meet together.

>> host: do you think that is helpful? >> guest: i think it would be nice if instead of empowering our staff we could do it ourselves. >> guest: you will also been, judging from the number of meetings you have been having on the net neutrality issue, u.n. commissioner clyburn as the newest member of the house, have been getting a lot of attention or having a busy schedule meetings. what are some of the biggest questions you are being asked by companies coming in and wanting to know your position on this? what are the biggest issues that they are coming to you with? >> guest: i think network neutrality has a couple of different sides to it. you of the four principles that were originally a spouse and then you have the two that had been ted fanta there, so i think really we need to get past the lawyer words into what the actual engineering of these look-alikes though to make sure we don't impede innovation, so as far as i'm concerned we are