we see all around us people cutting the the cord and going from wireline to wireless.about 40% of the population uses only wireless for their home phone. and then you see a transition from copper to fiber that is going on and, in fact, is well underway. and these things often get conflated. so i think one of the things we want to make sure happens as part of these trials is that the fcc does not actually impede or slow down even the technology transitions that are going on that are driven by consumers. as i noted, consumers are voting with their feet in their transition to wireless. we see transition going on to fiber. we're doing quite a lot of transition of copper line to fiber lines. that's not a transition from tdm to ip, these are customers who are actually keeping the same services just over a different physical infrastructure that's far more reliable. we've just come through one of the toughest winters in a long time here up and down the eastern seaboard, and and our fiber networks really showed how resilient they are, how much less repair they take when subject

without regard to what happens on the wireline it is essential we continue to recognize the wireless market and the technology and the wireless spectrum constraint issue. >> what is going proposed for wireless? is that problematic? >> guest: i don't want to get into that because we are filing papers and commenting on that. the mpr 3 has posed the question if wireless should be treated in a different way and we believe it is the question. >> do you think it will be likely you will be back in court? >> guest: if the fcc reclassify broadbrand as class two, i think that will end up in the court. i think this issues generates more heat and light over the years it has been debated. a number of people in the industry are ready to move on and feel like there are more important policy issue in washington we should be talking about. the question is can the fcc chart a path that encourages the investment in the eco system that everyone can say this works well enough we can move on to other things. with a carefully crafted rules that is a possibility. >> the transition to all it networks is anot

so in general, people can use their traditional wireline network. their neighbor might be on the cable network. there are four or more of wireless networks, and 90% plus of americans have a least one mobile phone in the home. the aussies multiple networks people can turn to. if anyone network gets overloaded, that doesn't mean no one can get through to 911. but fundamentally you're asking a very good question about designing robustness into the te systems, and that is a challenge for our industry, the wireless cable industries and the public safety community to work together to make sure that they are the right number of trunks to peace apps, that our backups and overflow systems. so this is one of those technological challenges we are working through this transition to working through at dhs with apco and the public safety commission with the fcc and were very focused on that. >> senator wicker? >> thank you. let me ask about the transition between the copper line networks and ip fiber. it obviously doesn't all happen at once. so there's a lag ther

now let's see wireline ing with the e.u. appears so attractive for kiev and where the possible catch could lie or the deal will remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between ukraine and europe us if it meets e.u. standards which it doesn't at the moment and will have to spend about one hundred billion dollars in order to do so winning a place at the european table ukraine will no longer be russia's preferential partner at least five hundred billion dollars in trade global financial markets expert patrick young believes the association deal with the e.u. is a grave mistake. ukraine which last year was in a catastrophic position how that signed a free trade association this year is going to associate with the european union out the point when it's on the brink already of economic disaster this is a counter straw for move for the ukrainian economy the only winners either this or a few sadly deluded egos whether they're in brussels whether they're in washington who believe some horror other they've achieved a great deal of p

for example, at&t now claims that there are residences within its wireline footprint that have no at&t broadband but it committed to serve 100 residences with broadband. it is good policy to allow them to make the promise this time? they have a history of using already planned build out. for example, they promised coverage but then after it was blocked it didn't change. when you strip away plans, this is less than it appears. at&t is stating it will upgrade portions of its network and that is not much. adding a new home wireless service to an existing coverage area isn't as significant as an initial wireless build out. there are further public harms. laws state that consumers in nations including those in rural areas should have access to telecommunication that is reasonable in the urban areas. they have not shown this to be the case. policy makers should be concerned about the shift from universal service. finally, at&t will create a new online video service. it should be free to enter the market but it can't take the position to favor services at the expense of competition. at&t has

this on the wireline side. on the wireless hide, the government does not get involved, and interconnection happens in the free market there. there's no reason to think it would not happen throughout the rest of the industry. >> thank you. >> senator ayotte? >> thank you. i want to thank you for being here. i want to follow up on some of the points that senator johnson was making. so as i understand it, the purpose of the universal service fund is really to build out capacity. it used to be hard lines. now we are looking at rock band because of what we are talking about today in terms of technology. that getst a state really shortchanged under this fund. $.37 on the dollar. i would love to have any of you drive around new hampshire with the in the rural areas and you could see that we really do have very much needs that are not being addressed. i've introduced legislation to make it more equitable, to reform this fund. i want the fcc to act further chore for what happens when universal service. mr. banks, when w

you will have a cable provider, wireline provider and wireless provider of broadband.so commissioner wright, commissioner mcdowell, do you see it broken and do you see a problem here? >> i don't and ftc has studies in this regard but i want to focus on one part of your question which is the values, heard a lot about the values of internet users in a variety of ways reflecting on the debate. i think that's important to note that what consumers value in their activities on the internet is in fact what lies at the center of antitrust analysis. i heard now, i think something that needs correction with respect to how cramped a view of antitrust is out there. antitrust is a consumer welfare-based system. this means what economists do is not merely focus on the things we can count but also on what consumers value. and to the extent in antitrust analysis this things like the amount of content, the quality of content, innovation, things other than price and quality, these are captured within antitrust analysis. >> commissioner mcdowell, do you have anything you want to add? >>

as the system as evolve to most of our customers, 70% to 80% of wireline customers and wireless customersare on unlimited plans. it is no longer part of billing records we retain. >> we are moving more and more toward monthly calling plans. i am trying to figure out how this is going to work if you are not going to have the kind of details phone numbers that could be queried and if you are not keeping all of the data for at least 18 months though there is no -- sounds like you are collecting or keeping less data than you used to. individual calls that you are charged for. and you are keeping them of varying lengths and don't accept that there is an fcc requirement to keep that data for 18 months. >> to the first point, we are not generating fewer call detail records. our systems generate them even when our customers are on the unlimited plans the systems whiches and the gate weighs automatically generate those records. we use them primarily for network management for managing traffic across the system and we have many different systems generally retaining those 12-18 months for business p

population.erved at&t and many other wireline providers as well as cable operators have made significant investments to reach my constituents, many of whom struggle to get dial-up. can you explain how this transaction will result in increased broadband services for rural communities like mine? >> yeah, in fact, i am looking at a list here. fixed wireless locally that this transaction will accommodate. again, we have a profitable tv product that we now pair with a broadband technology, and it makes the economic for deploying broadband look really attractive . we are going to use a wireless technology, which will give 15 megabits to 20 megabits, build 13 million households in rural america. in missouri, that is 340,000 households will be passed with this technology. this one here we are most enthusiastic about. we have been looking at this technology a long time, trying to get the economics to work, and it works want to put a profitable video products, which directv brings to bear with this technology, so that is what missouri should see. >> thank you. you know, representing a very rural c

new broadband commitment includes 13 million locations, 85% of which are outside our traditional wireline footprint. we think this is big news for rural america. we estimate that nearly 20% of these consumers today have no access to broadband service and that 27% are hostage to only one provider. to many of these at&t service will be the fastest available for some it will be their first chance for truly high speed broadband. the transaction also allows us to expand our one gigabyte service to 2 million additional locations. is we can serve 70 million location with broadband. this transaction will allow us to price more competitively and provide consumers a higher quality service which results in cable companies pricing more competitively and that includes all of their products and services. we'll be able to accelerate our over the top video services offered by at&t as those offered by netflix and amazon and hulu. we can deliver them to any phone, tablet or car or airplanes. we operate in a competitive environment that's becoming more competitive. the cable companies already dominate broad

for example, while they provide less protection for wireless users than for wireline broadband users, they don't provide no protection and one of the areas where they offer protection for wireless users is for services that the providers itself offers. there's some cases where it can't discriminate against competing services. now, if at&t does offer a new over-the-top video service, those provisions of those rules might kick in where previously at&t did not offer such a video service so they might not. that is sort of an interesting point with the 2010 rules. >> you know, i think most americans -- and most members of congress are very concerned. you know, we -- the internet has been a gateway, not a gatekeeper to broadband providers and i know as a telephone company you have -- you are subject as a common carrier. and we've seen reports of fast lane, slow lane which i think are -- if there's a reason not to have that it's just concerning. >> well, i mean, we're working, public knowledge is working at the fcc now for strong net neutrality rules that would apply to the entire industry,