will remain in the days ahead for consumers who have not yet made the transition. the commission cut the number of on prepared --un prepareds to 68%. we need to make sure that everyone who has an issue, we have a process to hear it and make sure the government is doing everything it can to ease the transition. we also include broadcasters with that. there are some issues out there. we have heard about high v. there will be others. the commission doors will remain open. we need to lessen the broadcasters to make sure they can reach their audience as effectively as possible. rick, i look forward to hearing from you and bill, organizing the effort on lessons learned.

many things went right. what went wrong and to present what we learned and how we can do better in the future. this is how the agency will grow. thank you all. if there are no further comments, i thank you for this presentation and that, madam secretary, if you can announce the second presentation? >> the second presentation will be made by blair love been and will discuss the process for developing a national broadband plan. -- blair levin. >> thank you. [no audio] >>blair? before you begin, let me thank commissioner cox, and your staff and scott deutschman.

congress has entrusted the fcc with the responsibility for developing a strategic plan for our country to ensure that all people of the united states have access to broadband capability. we look forward to hearing your status report. i want to say how delighted i am that you have agreed to take on this task and have come back to the commission to coordinate the agency's broad band work, the essential broadbent work that the country needs to tackle. you are one of the leading lights in this sector your deeply familiar with the fcc, with capital markets, with technology, and with the needs of consumers in the 21st century. it is not a small thing that you have elected to come back to

public service. your service has already been and will be invaluable to the commission and the country, as we take on the critical responsibility congress has given us. i look forward to your presentation. >> thank you very much. it is a pleasure to have an opportunity to work with you again. let me start by also thanking chairman copps who asked me to come in and help coordinate desperate uns gutted a terrific job. -- you and scott did a terrific job. scott did a really terrific job pulling together resources of the commission. i would also like to follow the last discussion by noting that as dtv was enormously collaborative effort between government agencies, it is a real -- the mission is very different, the sense of mission, the importance of dedication and

you have created a great example for all of us. we will talk about the broadband plan that congress asked us, the fcc, to provide 230 days from now. before i do that, i want to know -- to note that there are significant other congressional mandates. for example, the 706 report due next february. there is the broadband data improvement act which at some -- which asks for various things. biggio is doing some benchmarking that we need to respond to. -- the gao is doing some benchmarking that we need to respond to. we need to do this in an integrated manner. we're looking at very similar debtor the analytic work is similar. the approach and recommendations should be consistent we need to have an efficient use of staff

resources. let me point out to folks in the community that will give us input, that in light of that, the filings in proceedings for the 706 report will be incorporated into the broadbent proceedings and vice versa. we'll take the comments into the record of the broadband proceeding. it will be a continuing process. this leads us to thinking about this as an omnibus broadband initiative. the purpose is to deliver on all the different congressional mandates. it is important that we create institutional knowledge on broadband beckons our ongoing policy deliberations. we will deliver a plan by the date of february 17. the broadband work will be far from over for this commission.

it is important that the information stays here as the engine city continues as the expert agency on these issues. just like the dtv thing, as scott so wonderfully coordinate the effort starting off under your auspices, commissioner cox, he will involve all the bureaus. i want to focus on the process for the national broadband plan. i will start by reviewing very quickly the congressional mandate. the core objective stated in the legislation was to ensure that all people of united states have access to broadband capability. there's a lot more details to that. i would point out that not only is it simply access but we are supposed to look at affordability. we have to develop a strategy for utilization.

in. d, i will not -- inparagraphd, it represents a view that while broadband is not the sole solution for any of the critical issues facing our country, it is part of the solution. this is for all the challenges that our country faces domestically. that is what we intend to do. our basic approach will be to ask four questions. first, we will look at the current situation. what is the state of deployment, affordability, utilization? second, what will be the near term solution without a change in government policy? we will not on top of the current situation those things we know will occur. -- we will map on top of the

current situation those things we know will occur. it would be a mistake not with knowledge what the cable industry doing or what the wireless industry is doing. we will take the present, map on the future and look at areas where there are demonstrable examples. those things that if we do not change policy, there would be a harm which congress has given as a guidepost to. we already know what some of those with big. e. it is important to know what the opportunities are or what the technologies are. we know there will be on served communities. --un served communities. we need to know the numbers.

we will be able to provide detailed knowledge about where the public harm might be or where the public interest benefits. that goes to the final phase of the approach which is, what are the ways of lessening or increasing the public benefit. we do not know the answer to any of those questions today. i think we have kind of a mandate for a process that has been discussed by all three of you. we have designed this process. we want to be transparent, that everyone will get to see the debate as it unfolds. it will be inclusive in the sense of enabling everyone to offer their views and it will be participatory.

we want to enable everyone to offer views. second, we want to be dated driven. that means we do not start with the conclusion. we start by looking at data. we do not just accept the data that is given to us. we accept analytic work. thirdly, we produce a plan. the key to bess -- the key to this is that there be significant public input. we will do five things, several which have never been done. first, we will have staff workshops. they are designed to provide the same kind of input. over 20 workshops we will have in august. the idea of these workshops, traditionally we have multiple meetings with multiple parties, often redundant the talk about the various issues. they are behind closed doors.

there with commission staff. they are with commission staff. we'll take part of that process and put it in this room, opened to the public, on the web, open to a variety of questions from a variety of different sources. in this initial phase, it is designed to start the beginning of the planning process. second, we will have a website that will enable people to follow process more carefully and offered their own thoughts and views about where we should be going. the beta launched -- was launched today. it was launched about 67 minutes ago. it is in beta and comments are welcome. third, we will have an additional form. --forum.

we will have significant numbers of hearings, including outside of washington, d.c., focusing on the gap analysis that we will do in the fall, as well as proposed solutions. there will be meetings with commission staff. we will try to coordinate them for the general counsel's office. we want to be more efficient about use of staff time and unable the process to move more quickly. for people interested in participating in that way, it will not commence until the week of january 20, at the earliest. that is because we want to make sure that we have the appropriate step and we have done our homework so that we can ask for a three questions. we focus on the staff workshops. there are two kinds of these.

we want to get the issues up quickly and the date. s. we appreciate that august is often a vacation month. we deeply apologize but we have no choice. we are setting certain milestones for herself. by july 16, on the website, we will be coordinating the workshops. we will be taking recommendations for what should be covered in those workshops and we will cover our initial view by july 23. we will post a formal participant list we hope that will be for all of the workshops by the 5th.

let me talk about the web site, broadband.gov. we will request feedback. we will enable fobbs to follow and participate in the process. we hope to have future capabilities, including mapping capabilities so people can see a variety of things and do their own analysis. will the consumer information that will be helpful to determine what is most important about the planning process and other information about broadband resources. i have to stop here and thank the extraordinary work of andrew martin, the cio. this is the first policy proceeding to have a dedicated web site like this. they put together very quickly -- they put it together very quickly.

many people in cyberspace will have many suggestions and we welcome them. they did a great job in getting it up and we are happy with it. it is operation now. -- it is operational now. by september, we hope to report you on what the actual state of play is. by november, i hope to be able to report on what our core analysis of the key gaps are. by december, we want to give you a policy framework. we will talk to you. i do not think we will be in a position to make recommendations. we will be too early in the face. we will be able to talk about the different approaches. we will get your feedback as to where you would like us to take these.

in january, we hope to report of the national agenda. there is health care, energy, health care -- educations of it we identified by the congress where they want us to give them advice. we hope to be able to give you some thoughts on that. in february, we will rise -- released the 76 report and report you on our plan. -- we will release the 706 report and report to you on our plan for . that concludes my presentation. i am happy to answer any questions you might have. >> thank you. commisioner copps? any comments? >> thank you very, very much

this is a huge part of -- this is cute. -- this is huge. if we do our job right, it will be very important. i have been shouting from the rooftops for something like this for almost eight years now. i have been calling for a national strategy to bring broadband out to every american, no matter who they are or where they live. now, thanks to the american recovery investment act, we have that commitment. it is the fcc that is directed to develop the plan. that is an opportunity. i am so pleased, mr. chairman, that you are leading the charge already with of the is a vision and deep personal commitment to make this plan reality.

larry, you and i have known each other for a long time. it is my view and a view shared recorders throughout the country that you are exactly the right person for this job with the talent and the ability and experience and plain old- fashioned good judgment to coordinate this massive undertaking for the commission. i knew this when you joined us four weeks ago. it is clear from your presentation today that your work is well under way. i am thoroughly impressed by the quality and quantity of work you have done in less than one month. your work is so good that my expectations keep going up. [laughter] we are expecting really big things. you have brought a level of excitement. when i talk about the chairman's vision and our come -- our commitment to broadbent, it is the greatest in the instructor

challenge of all time. there are couple of things that are important that you alluded to in your presentation. i think it may have been one of our first manning's where we discussed -- first meetings that what we produce in february must be a plan and not a report. the sec has been charged to do something different, too -- the fcc has been charged to do a forward-looking, accessible, living, breathing plan that can get us to affordable broadband in every corner of our country and restore our pronounced as the world's oil technology leader. i was pleased that we were of one mind in sharing this expansive vision. what a challenge to do that. we have to take that huge ocean of data that has been elicited by our inquiries -- we had to

take that huge ocean of data and poured it into where broadband funnel and make sure that what came out the other end is a focused and practical and achievable and doable plan to get this job done. making it come out right, means an effort like any we have ever done before. i know better than ever, as a result of my last five months, that are fcc team is up to the challenge. i think there may for it. the other point i would like to make is that for this to happen will require a level of public outrage, public input, and public dialogue that we have never pull -- never before achieved. i am encouraged that the development of this plan already promises to engage the public in many ways we have not done before.

workshops and public meetings and town hall gatherings can be part of this. the internet can help. we have done some of us in the past. now we must do much more, all the time. the website is a great start. i think we agree that we need to be imaginative here. the goal is maximum civic engagement. i really like that term, civic engagement. we need to implement civic engagement across the wide gamut of issues where this commission has jurisdiction and broadband is exactly the place to start new technologies and techniques and non-traditional out risk and put the focus of this commission on what it is supposed to be, a consumer-oriented and consumer- responsive agency. we need people talking to us. we'd just talking to people. we need people talking to people. as a nation, we can then buy

into an aggressive broadband plan based on a shared understanding of how critical broadband is to our individual and national futures. that kind of citizen buy-in is critical to a good plan and the successful end to -- implementation of a plan to come up with. no one should think that we are putting all this emphasis on broadband for the sake of something called broadband. broadband is about something else. it is the grid in a blur. that is what infrastructure is always about. -- it is the great enabler. there are no solutions to the colossal changes we face as a nation and seek to overcome, energy dependence, environmental

degradation, job losses, inadequate health care, even our damaged civic dialogue, there is no solution to any of those that does not contain a critical broadband component within it. when you enable broadband, you unable united states of america. -- youenable the united states of america. there must we cannot afford to waste. we have a good process going. with a full commission press between now and february we can and we will get this job done. mark me down as totally energized by this proceeding and by the work you have already done. i am very pleased with the process you have laid out. the chairman has great plans for this and i am looking to working with him.

we will develop a national broadband plan that we can all be proud of. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner mcdowell? >> thank-you. this is a terrific opportunity. the world's economies ride on the rails of broadband. we have a terrific opportunity to improve the human condition all around the globe. i agree with commisioner copps that this is the biggest thing to come to the fcc since the implementation of the 1996 act. thank you for your briefing last week. thank you chairman john caskey for your talk earlier this week. -- genachowski for your talk earlier this week.

there are many challenges. it was three weeks ago. there are many challenges and restraints such as time and budget we have a statutory deadline, the magic date of february 17. folks need to understand that our deadline for the broadband mapping data to be in comes about one year after the plan is due. one of the most critical inputs to the decision making for the plan comes one year after the plan is due. it is important to put that in context. we will try to do our own mapping and the tet-gathering. -- data-gathering. folks need to manage their

expectations accordingly. hopefully, of the broadband plan will continue to be iterative after february 17. it is difficult to keep up with internet time but we need to make sure we did not slow down internet time in the process. these are challenges that i hope will adjust all expectations and i look forward to working with you and all my colleagues and all the stakeholders. i look forward to going throughout the country to learn more about this. i have already started. i was in alaska in early march when it was 50 below zero outside. i learned the unique challenges with the eyes and extreme weather conditions and how they are satellite-dependent. that will be the first of many trips.

thank you all very much. i look forward to working with you further. >> thank you, commissioner mcdowell. thank you, blair, for laying out an aggressive, energetic, creative game plan for tackling a project of such great importance for the country. it is also for the fcc. congress has entrusted the fcc with a matter of profound importance to the country. they have given us the job of developing a national broadband plan for america. as you said, the statute is clear about what our goal must be. we must find ways to ensure that all people of united states have access to broadband. we must devise a detailed strategy to ensure that americans can afford broadband. they must be able to use broadband. we must evaluate the nation's deployment of broadband, including through federal

grants. we must ensure that the broadbent infrastructure and services advance national purposes listed in the statute. this includes job creation and economic growth. the importance is amplified by today's employment numbers. education, health care, energy, public safety, civic participation, and many others, as you said, broadband is not a solution to any single problem, it is a solution to almost -- it is a part of any solution that any problem our country faces. i cannot imagine a more important test for this agency at this moment in history. as a nation, we have faced challenges like this before. we faced challenges that were addressed with the expansion of

roads across the country, electricity, universal telephone service, which this agency knows well, networks that connected and connect americans that became platforms for commerce and for improving the quality of american lives. we are at a crossroads, similar to the ones we have faced in the past than we, as a country, build a 21st century communications infrastructure that all americans have access to and that serves as a 21st century platform for prosperity and opportunity for all americans? the president and congress have given this agency the responsibility for developing a strategic plan to connect americans to each other and to the rest of the world for making sure that we have a plan to put in