this week of "contenders," tom tauke from verizon discusses the internet, the role of the sec, and spectrum sales. >> this week on the "communicator," tom tauke is our guest. we're also joined by tim hart, senior technology reporter for politico. we're here to discuss several telecommunication issues confronting verizon and the wireless world. and we begin with kim. >> thursday, there was a vote on reform and universal service funds, a mouthful and more complicated to follow. i wanted your opinion on how you thought it turned out after seven months of lobbying and years of talking about needing to do this. how did it turn out? >> almost decades of talking about this. the chairman and the commissioner deserve credit for taking on this issue, tackling it, and getting it done. it is a big issue, very complex. essentially we had a system of subsidies under the old telephony world that continued as the old telephony world has died away. the subsidies were in many cases being abused. they were not targeted any way that was helpful to consumers. it really became almost an embarrassment for governm

. >> this week on "the communicators," tom tauke of verizon discusses some of today's key issues in telecommunications, management of traffic on the internet and spectrum sales. >> host: and this week on "the communicators," verizon's executive vice president for policy, tom taukes our guest. we're also joined by kim hart, senior technology reporter for "politico." here here to discuss several telecommunications issues confronting vise season and the wireless world, and we'll begin the questioning with kim hart. >> host: hi, mr. tauke, thanks for being here. so on thursday, the fcc had a significant vote on reforming the universal service fund. that's a mouthful and even more complicated to follow. i wanted to get your opinion on how you thought it all turned out after so many months of lobbying and so many years of talking about needing to do this. how do you think it all turned out? >> guest: it's almost decades of talking about this, and i think, first of all, the chairman and the commissioners deserve credit for taking on this issue, tackling it and getting it done. it's a big issue, very complex.