1 Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20554 STRATEGIC PLAN IMPLEMENTATION FORUM Commission Meeting Room FCC Building 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Friday, April 28, 2000 The parties met, pursuant to the notice of the Commission, at 10:05 a.m. APPEARANCES: Committee Members: KATHRYN BROWN, Chief of Staff MAGALIE SALAS, Chair Digital Age Steering Committee ROBERT PEPPER, Co-Chair Competition Steering Committee CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS, Member Opportunity Steering Committee DALE HATFIELD, Chair Spectrum Steering Committee 2 I N D E X I. Overview 3 Strategic Plan Process and Implementation Kathryn Brown, Chief of Staff II. Strategic Plan Implementation Steering Committees Digital Age Steering Committee 7 Magalie Salas, Chair Competition Steering Committee 14 Robert Pepper, Co-Chair Opportunity Steering Committee 26 Cornell William Brooks, Member Spectrum Steering Committee 34 Dale Hatfield, Chair 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 3 MS. BROWN: Good morning. I'm Kathy Brown. I'm 4 Chief of Staff to FCC Chairman William Canard. Thank you 5 for being here this morning. 6 We have had a series of roundtables and panel 7 discussions on the FCC's Five Year Strategic Plan, which we 8 announced last year and which we've been living by. We also 9 presented that plan to Congress and this year presented to 10 Congress an update, sort of a report card of how we did in 11 our first year. We thought it would be worthwhile to have 12 one more public meeting to describe to you and anyone who is 13 interested the kind of progress we have made on our 14 strategic plan, what it is we have done, and what it is we 15 hope to do as we now enter the second year. 16 For those who have not read the plan and even for 17 those of you who have, a reminder that what we said we would 18 do is we would create a model agency for the digital age. 19 By that we mean to be responsive to the public we serve -- 20 more responsive to the public we serve, and to do that in a 21 way using 21st Century technologies. So we've made a lot of 22 progress on that. We detailed steps that we needed to take 23 in the plan and today we thought we'd talk a little bit 24 about that. 25 We said we would also promote competition in all 4 1 communications markets. Much of what we do here, if not all 2 of what we do here, is about that and we have a presentation 3 on our competitive agenda and how we fared during the first 4 year and where it is we are going. 5 We said we would promote opportunities for all 6 Americans to benefit from the communications revolution. We 7 talk about that internally as our opportunity agenda, that 8 in this incredible time of opportunity with new technologies 9 and, as you know, enormous wealth in this country that no 10 American be left behind in this revolution, both telephone 11 and cable and wireless and mass media kinds of advances and 12 particularly the Internet which is changing the way we live 13 and work and play. We want to insure that the policies that 14 we put forth are inclusive in that regard and so we'll talk 15 about that. 16 Finally, we said it was our goal to manage the 17 nation's airwaves in the public's interest. The management 18 of spectrum is vitally important to this country and, 19 indeed, to the world. That the use of the airwaves be used 20 efficiently by those who are likely to give it the highest 21 use for the benefit of consumers. So we will talk about 22 what our plans were and how we have moved along the first 23 year on that. 24 We've tried to have a very open process as we 25 talked about the agency's goals and the agency's plans, the 5 1 way we've implemented it. We've sought consumer and 2 industry input, we've sought input from the Hill, as we have 3 tried to remold our agency to insure that our agency is 4 responsive to the needs of the new age, if you will, and the 5 new information age. 6 So this is yet another effort to say publicly 7 where we think we are, to talk about the steps we have taken 8 and, certainly, to invite input from the public and from the 9 industry, from citizen groups, from consumer groups about 10 how we're doing and where we are going. 11 We will continue to keep the Congress informed of 12 our efforts and we will continue to seek a dialog with the 13 Congress about the new FCC. So with that, I will let you 14 know who is here at the table and what they're going to talk 15 about and then I'll turn it over to folks. 16 Magalie Salas is the chair of our Digital Age 17 Steering Committee. What we've done, just to give you a 18 little background, is we've taken the strategic plan and we 19 again had, I think, a one or two day retreat of our senior 20 managers and then we've had ongoing meetings, et cetera of 21 what we call our sort of organizing group, which are the 22 senior managers, and we have set ourselves a number of 23 implementation committees, internally, with our senior 24 managers sort of directing those committees. 25 But those committees made up of the rank and file 6 1 of our FCC employees and folks who are actually doing the 2 work and having to change the way they work. And so we set 3 up internal steering committees and then internal working 4 groups to take chunks of the implementation plan and 5 actually get it done. The idea being that you need a work 6 plan for getting from one point to the other point, and that 7 you need, obviously, our own employees buy-in and then you 8 need support from the top. So the structure we've set up 9 internally is to set up steering groups under the managing 10 group, if you will, to involve our employees, to put 11 together work plans and then to move forward on the plan. 12 Under that kind of management structure we 13 understood that we couldn't do it all at once, that if we 14 wanted to keep the agency running while we in fact were 15 changing, we needed to prioritize those issues that we 16 wanted to address first and to try to put in place efforts 17 that could have us change even as we kept up with the 18 incredible workload we have. So it has been a very enormous 19 challenge but a good one, I think. 20 So the first steering committees we put in place 21 are the ones you're going to hear from today. The Digital 22 Age Steering Committee; a Competition Steering Committee, 23 which is headed by Larry Strickling and Bob Pepper; and then 24 our Opportunity Steering Committee that is actually headed 25 by Lorraine Miller, who is head of our Consumer Information 7 1 Bureau but who today will be represented by Cornell Brooks 2 who is a member of that committee; and then finally our 3 Spectrum Steering Committee which Dale Hatfield chairs. 4 So, with that and with an understanding, unless 5 someone has a question of the kind of structure we've used 6 to implement change here, I will turn it over first to 7 Magalie to talk about what we're doing to insure that our 8 agency is responsive to the public we serve. 9 Magalie. 10 MS. SALAS: Thanks, Kathy, and thank you for this 11 opportunity to come here this morning and talk to all of you 12 about what the Digital Age Steering Committee has been up 13 to. 14 Let me first start by introducing you, at least 15 virtually, to the members of the Digital Age Steering 16 Committee. If you see in this slide, you will gather that 17 there are bureau and office chiefs who come from different 18 disciplines. 19 We have the Inspector General as part of our 20 Digital Age Steering Committee, and we have her presentation 21 from the union that is here at the FCC, the NTEU. So I am 22 very honored and privileged and very excited about working 23 with this group of colleagues, and so far we have been doing 24 a lot of progress. 25 The mission, as Kathy started to tell you this 8 1 morning, the mission of the Digital Age Steering Committee 2 in essence is to try and work on those initiatives that 3 would make the FCC a model agency for the 21st Century. 4 Under the leadership of these nine persons we are proceeding 5 towards our goal. 6 Let me talk to you a little bit about what the 7 goals we have chosen or the key objectives that we have 8 chosen in the Digital Age Steering Committee. As Kathy 9 indicated, we could not certainly work on everything that is 10 detailed in the strategic plan. If you read the strategic 11 plan you will notice that there are a lot of things, a lot 12 of key objectives that are assigned, if you will, under this 13 policy initiative, however, we thought that if we could 14 choose two key objectives that would be critical to 15 advancing the progress that the agency needs to make in this 16 area that we would benefit through more palpable efforts. 17 The committee chose leading the way into the 18 information age as one of the key objectives to work on. 19 The other key objective we chose was to preserve and 20 increase the knowledge of FCC staff. 21 Let me tell you a little bit about what we have 22 been doing as far as the first objective is concerned. The 23 first objective to lead the way into the information age 24 stems from the Strategic Plan's Policy Initiative to evolve 25 the FCC website and to enhance it so that the FCC in itself 9 1 becomes more accessible to the public. As a side benefit of 2 that so that the inside working units of the FCC can also 3 share information more easily. 4 To achieve this goal we have made considerable 5 progress. We are developing the concept of an "intelligent 6 gateway". What is this intelligent gateway that we're 7 thinking about? The intelligent gateway is based on a 8 concept that we will have an integrated access to currently 9 existing information systems at the FCC. 10 At the FCC right now we have multiple websites for 11 different bureaus and offices. All of these bureaus and 12 offices at their websites have a considerable amount of 13 exciting and new and vital information that the public needs 14 to know about the work that the FCC is doing. But what we 15 find and what we hear from the public and sometimes from FCC 16 staff also is that it is a little difficult sometimes to 17 access the information if you do not know which bureau is 18 overseeing that particular piece of information. 19 So what we're trying to achieve with the concept 20 of the intelligent gateway is to change that and to provide 21 for a common interface and a common command language so that 22 the user by accessing the intelligent gateway they would be 23 able to ask questions and get replies to these questions 24 without knowing exactly where in the FCC that information 25 resides. 10 1 So, for example, if I'm an old amateur radio 2 operator who has not worried about the FCC in many years and 3 I used to know that my Ham radio issues were handled by 4 something that used to be called the Private Radio Bureau. 5 Now I go to the FCC website because now I am well-versed in 6 the Internet and I find out that the Private Radio Bureau 7 does not exist, what do I do? 8 With the concept of the intelligent gateway you 9 will be able to ask the FCC website questions about the Ham 10 radio operator service without knowing that now that service 11 is governed or overseen by the Wireless Telecommunications 12 Bureau. You will not need to know the structure of the FCC 13 in order to get your information. So, in essence, that is 14 basically the concept that we're working on. 15 The intelligent gateway also seeks to provide not 16 only substantive information about the different issues that 17 the FCC is working on but also tracking information, status 18 information. A lot of you sometimes wonder what is the 19 status of this rulemaking proceeding. We have the 20 electronic comment filing system that tells you who has 21 filed in that proceeding, who has filed comments, can tell 22 you how many comments have been filed in a particular 23 docket. But some of you want to know where in the process 24 at the FCC that particular proceeding is. We hope to be 25 able to provide that particular type of information through 11 1 the intelligent concept. 2 What are the advantages of this? As I mentioned 3 before, the first advantage is that it makes us more 4 accessible to you, the public whom we serve. In addition to 5 that, it allows bureaus and offices to interchange, exchange 6 information more easily and as a by-product we hope to have 7 even better decisionmaking processes at the agency for the 8 benefit of the public. 9 To help us along the way we have preliminarily 10 established a working group that is composed of 11 representatives of bureaus and offices to make sure that we 12 identify the needs, both of the internal FCC staff and of 13 the public. And so we are working and we are getting ready 14 to prepare a statement of work that will identify all of 15 these requirements that will set the first stage in process. 16 That is a short-term goal. 17 The long-term goal, of course, will be the design 18 and implementation of this project which I think that by now 19 you can gather it is a quite extensive project, quite 20 ambitious, but something that I think will benefit the 21 agency and the public tremendously. 22 As far as the second policy initiative or second 23 key objective, rather, that we have chosen in the Digital 24 Age Steering Committee on the preservation and increase of 25 knowledge of the FCC staff, this is what we've been doing 12 1 under this objective: 2 We thought that it is exciting to work on all of 3 these initiatives, all of these electronic filing 4 initiatives, however, it is also incumbent upon the 5 management of the FCC to prepare the staff and to make sure 6 that the staff is ready to undertake all of these 7 objectives. So we are seeking to increase training 8 opportunities for the FCC staff and to make progress in that 9 area, we have established an FCC Training Working Group 10 composed of representation or representatives from different 11 bureaus and offices who will lead the way in making sure 12 that we devise a comprehensive FCC training program. 13 The chairperson of that FCC Training Working Group 14 is Shirley Suggs. Some of you may know Shirley because you 15 may have dealt with her in matters dealing with Federal 16 Register publications or in just getting a cite for a 17 particular FCC document. Shirley is our chairperson for 18 that group. 19 As their goals, the FCC Training Working Group, we 20 have asked them to come up with the FCC Training Working 21 Plan. They have designed, they have already tailored the 22 scope of that plan to include two particular issues. Number 23 one, the continuing education of the FCC staff and, as a 24 second issue, the career development. 25 By continuing education what we seek to get at in 13 1 that area is to identify a list of topics that are of 2 interest to the FCC staff and that will make them work 3 better on a day-to-day basis. Things like, for example, how 4 to write a better agenda item or what is the OMB process, 5 what is this OMB agency, what do they do, all of these 6 things that will enrich the lives of the FCC staff on a day- 7 to-day basis. 8 In the career development area what we are seeking 9 there to address are situations where because the FCC is 10 indeed working smarter we will need to make refinements to 11 certain position descriptions and we will need to make 12 changes in those areas to make sure that everybody is 13 working at their full potential and to the best of their 14 ability. So there we will take that approach and we will 15 take a look at those issues and see whether we can provide 16 training in that area. 17 At present the FCC Training Working Group is 18 interviewing FCC staff through focus groups, interviewing 19 bureau and office chiefs to identify the needs, again, of 20 different bureaus and offices. Then they will come up with 21 relevant information that they will use to design the FCC 22 Training Plan. And as far as a projected timeline for this 23 effort, we certainly hope that by early summer we will be 24 able to start at least on the continuing education part of 25 this program. And the career development effort, we will be 14 1 taking a closer look, a little bit of a more paused look at 2 that issue. 3 So these are the exciting things that we have been 4 doing in the Digital Age Steering Committee. Now I welcome 5 questions. 6 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Comments off mike.) 7 MS. SALAS: No, at this point we're not 8 contemplating that. 9 MS. BROWN: We are -- just to fill out a little 10 more -- we are experiencing that in any event because we 11 have a hiring freeze and we cannot hire anyone and we are 12 losing folks at a rate that's fairly high, substantial. We 13 are basically unable to refill those positions because of 14 our budget situation. Thus, while no individual is seeing 15 their job cut, in fact we are seeing jobs go away. I think 16 we're just managing to find some money, unfortunately out of 17 the IT budget, in order to make some hires. So you see that 18 happening in any event, the number of people at the agency 19 going down. 20 Any other questions? Thank you, Magalie. Bob 21 Pepper will present overview of what the Competition 22 Steering Committee has been up to. 23 MR. PEPPER: Great. Thank you, Kathy. 24 Larry Strickland is the chair but can't be here 25 today and so asked me to do the presentation. We sort of 15 1 trade-off some responsibilities here. 2 The slide -- if I can just go to, actually, the 3 first slide. 4 As Magalie -- as Kathy and Magalie pointed out, 5 the strategic plan that was sent up to Congress by the 6 chairman identified a number of issues as they relate to 7 competition. 8 One of the key components of the agenda of the 9 strategic plan was to eliminate barriers to entry in U.S. 10 markets. So, for example, the Commission has been involved 11 in things like opening up local competition. There have 12 been proceedings in Section 251 interconnection rules, 13 unbundled network elements, long distance -- opened up the 14 long distance markets. The Commission has granted the first 15 271 application last year, end of last year, the broadband 16 initiative, Section 706 of the Telecom Act -- I'll talk a 17 little bit more about that in a moment, competition in 18 multi-channel video. 19 The next part of the strategic plan talked about 20 not just opening up markets to competition but also 21 deregulating as competition develops so that what we want to 22 do is substitute market- 23 based approaches to market discipline instead of regulation. 24 If we have more competition one of the real benefits of more 25 competition is that we can begin to deregulate. 16 1 So in terms of this process, the review process, 2 it includes things like the biannual review. Again, I'll 3 talk a little bit more about that in specifics. 4 We also, as part of the strategic plan, the 5 Commission talked about the need to enforce rules so that 6 businesses can compete fairly. So, one of the first things 7 that was proposed as part of these initiatives by the 8 chairman was to create consolidated bureaus, one for 9 consumer information but the other one was to consolidate 10 enforcement activities. So we now have a new Enforcement 11 Bureau. We have rocket dockets. We'll talk a bit more 12 about dealing with consumer fraud and so on and protecting 13 consumers. But we have enforcement becomes a very important 14 part of this. 15 And then also the final component in this 16 competition, component or part of the strategic plan was to 17 promote competition in international markets. 18 So where does this sort of fit? Well, we expect 19 that U.S. markets to be characterized by vigorous 20 competition that's going to result in a reduced need for 21 traditional regulation. 22 The chairman's mission statement to the staff is 23 that we have three primary goals. The first is to promote 24 competition, the second is to protect consumers and the 25 third is to support access for every American to existing 17 1 and advanced services. So one of the things that we've done 2 is create another -- you know, the steering committee to 3 deal with these competition issues. 4 The steering committee includes virtually every 5 bureau and office that deals with writing rules for 6 competition. It is truly an inter-bureau group and, in 7 fact, in some respects it is a beginning of a move to a more 8 functional approach that was in the strategic plan without 9 the kind of disruptive changes that would be required if we 10 actually kind of reorganized the Commission and that's just 11 not a practical approach. 12 As Kathy pointed out, when we're in the midst of 13 doing all of this work what we really need to do is get the 14 right people and the right place to work with one another. 15 We meet weekly. One of the things that we had to 16 do initially, given this long agenda of competition 17 activities that the Commission is involved in is determine 18 which of these issues and proceedings are essentially within 19 an existing bureau and which cut across traditional bureau 20 lines. It was those issues that cut across traditional 21 bureau lines that we began to focus on first. 22 That list was relatively long and so we had to, as 23 a practical matter and a concession to 24 hour days and 7 24 day weeks, we focused in, initially -- again I emphasize 25 only initially -- 3 issues that cut across traditional 18 1 bureau boundaries. The first is the 2 broadband agenda. That agenda -- I'll talk about each one 3 of these in detail in a moment -- that agenda really is 4 focused on providing the right incentives for the 5 competitive deployment of broadband to everybody. 6 The second issue which cut across traditional 7 industry boundaries is the biannual review. The third, of 8 course, is the issue having to deal with transactions, 9 mergers, and trying to make this a process that's more 10 coherent across bureau boundaries because, you know, 11 transactions today are not just usually single stations, 12 although we have a lot of those, but a lot of the more 13 complicated transactions and mergers have to deal with 14 licenses in multiple bureaus. 15 So what we did was, we created for each one of 16 these groups or each one of these issues a subcommittee that 17 essentially functions as almost it's a virtual bureau, if 18 you will. In fact, in the broad band area we refer to it 19 and talk about it as the virtual broadband division because 20 it has people participating from every bureau in the agency. 21 So it is a cross-cutting working group in which everybody 22 participates. 23 It allows us to go beyond the traditional 24 organizational boundaries of the Commission and we can, 25 again, move towards this functional approach in a very 19 1 proactive way to better reflect how the market is organized 2 and is working and do that in an efficient way that is less 3 disruptive, let's us get our work done and let's us get our 4 work done in a better way. 5 So the broadband working group is focusing, among 6 other things, on four very significant activities right now. 7 The first is the second annual report on the deployment of 8 advanced services, referred to as the 706 report because of 9 the Section 706 in the Telecom Act of 1996. We expect this 10 report to be released some time this summer. It is going to 11 look at the state of deployment of broadband and identify 12 recommendations or suggestions if in fact we find that there 13 are problems. 14 Now, as part of that process, we have a data 15 collection initiative. The Commission adopted, at the March 16 24 meeting, a 5 page questionnaire to determine the extent 17 of local competition in broadband and in the deployment of 18 broadband services. A workshop was held last week on April 19 17. We're going to have another workshop on Monday, May 1 20 to provide more information. So this is part of our data 21 collection that goes into the broadband initiative and data 22 collection that's going to go into the report that's going 23 to be released. 24 Another extremely important component is the joint 25 conference and the hearings that the Commission is 20 1 conducting around the country. This joint conference is 2 essentially a joint committee of each of our five FCC 3 commissioners and six state commissioners. 4 We are having hearings across the country. We 5 have already held three of these hearings. On April 14 6 Commissioner Ness attended a hearing, a roundtable, rather, 7 in Takoma, Washington. In Anchorage last week Kathy was 8 there with Commissioner Ness and that was a field hearing 9 that focused on the relationship between advanced service 10 deployment and economic development. 11 We have a Midwest hearing -- I'm sorry, that was 12 actually also last week, it was last week with Chairman 13 Canard in South Sioux City, Nebraska focusing on cable and 14 fixed wireless deployment, especially in rural areas. Then 15 we have three more scheduled, a Northeast hearing on May 22 16 in Lowell, Massachusetts that's going to focus on 17 public/private partnerships, deployment in remote areas and 18 also some of the data-gathering issues. 19 On June 9 there will be a hearing in the Southeast 20 in Miami that is going to focus on rural and urban 21 development and urban multi-cultural issues and initiatives. 22 Then in the Mountain West at the end of June, on June 23, 23 there is a hearing scheduled in Cheyenne, Wyoming that's 24 going to focus on spreading deployment via community demand 25 aggregation, deployment on Native American tribal lands, 21 1 rural areas, and also look at some of the data-gathering 2 issues. 3 Now, at each one of these hearings there will be a 4 different commissioner. So all of the commissioners, FCC 5 commissioners are going to be involved on-site in these 6 different hearings and there will be a different complement 7 of the state commissioners. So this is an extremely 8 important part of not only the data collection but in terms 9 of the competitive deployment of broadband in partnership, 10 of course, with the state commissions because they have an 11 enormous role to play here in the deployment of local 12 infrastructure and local competition. 13 And then, finally, within the broadband working 14 group there is the activity that is putting together a 15 survey on best practices at the community level. So it is a 16 community broadband deployment data base that we're trying 17 to put together for community and local efforts to deploy 18 broad band technologies. That survey is going through the 19 approval process now and then it is going to be posted on 20 our website. We're going to hope that community groups and 21 municipalities around the country will download it and let 22 us know what's happening in their communities. 23 The second working group is the bi-annual review 24 working group. As you know, we've already submitted our 25 first bi-annual review report to Congress. We're reviewing 22 1 all the CODA federal regulations. This is an intensive 2 effort that cuts across every bureau and office and we're 3 working -- there are proposals bubbling up from within 4 bureaus, there are proposals that are coming in from the 5 outside and then we're looking at one another's proposals 6 and making suggestions. So this is a very very active 7 group. We expect the next report to Congress by this fall. 8 Then the third of the working groups is the merger 9 working group. I think, as you know, Jim berg (phonetic), 10 in the Office of General Counsel, has been designated as 11 sort of our lead person on this transaction team to pull 12 together the processes, pull together the people to examine 13 our processes, streamline our processes. Jim and Chris 14 Wright, General Counsel, held a public forum on March 1 to 15 seek public comment, input industry comments and so on. 16 We've now put together a timeline, I'll go to in a 17 moment to give you an example of what we're doing. It's 18 posted on the website. We're putting up all the information 19 now on the website so people can go and see for the major 20 transactions, where they are in the process. We've set out 21 some guidelines for ourselves on dealing with these mergers 22 in a timely fashion and it's providing much better 23 coordination between the bureaus and with other governmental 24 agencies. 25 Going back to an earlier point I made, again 23 1 trying to provide some context here, most of the 2 transactions that the Commission processes are routine 3 transactions and they are within a single bureau. So, for 4 example, in the month of March the Wireless Bureau processed 5 almost 1,100 applications for transfer of control that were 6 done within 90 days. These things they go up there posted 7 for comment, they are non-contested. In addition, there 8 were another 1,500 applications for call signs in the 9 Wireless Bureau that were processed in the month of March. 10 In the Mass Media Bureau routine uncontested 11 license transfers are usually done within 45 to 60 days. 12 These are within single bureaus and we process thousands, 13 tens of thousands of these every year. 14 What the merger working group is focusing on are 15 the more complicated transactions that involve, if not 16 dozens, sometimes hundreds of licenses and cut across 17 multiple bureaus. So, for example, to give you an example 18 of one of the timelines here, the America Online and Time- 19 Warner merger, you can see that we have a 180-day time line. 20 We are now at day 31. Each day you can sort of track it. 21 It is like a thermometer. It's like one of those, you know, 22 CFC or United Way thermometers and you can see how close 23 we're getting. It identifies -- and we put up here on the 24 website all of the documents, what we have received, 25 requests for information. 24 1 We're trying to make this as open and as public a 2 process as possible. But in the case here of the Time 3 Warner/AOL merger, it turns out that this involved not only 4 what you'd think of as cable transfers in the Cable Bureau, 5 but there are broadcast television stations, there are 6 aviation licenses. They have an airplane. There are 7 licenses with satellite dishes and satellite services and 8 they cut across all of the licensing bureaus and so there 9 has to be a coordination process. So you end up with a very 10 complicated transaction like this it's not a single license 11 transaction -- these are the kinds of transactions that Jim 12 Berg's working group has been focusing on and trying to come 13 up with a coherent rapid smooth inter-bureau process that 14 can deal with these in a very timely fashion. 15 So that's the work that Jim's group is doing. 16 Again, very successful. 17 So those are basically the three different working 18 groups we have under the Competition Steering Committee. I 19 guess if there are some questions we can take them. 20 MS. BROWN: Any questions? 21 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Comments off mike.) 22 MR. PEPPER: Yes. The question was, for those who 23 couldn't here, "Is there a schedule of the joint conference 24 hearings on the web?" The answer is yes. What I can do is, 25 if you go to our website and go to "Federal/State Joint 25 1 Conference on Advanced Services" -- it's 2 www.FCC.gov/jointconference, all one word, it will get you 3 to that page. Then it will give you information on each of 4 the hearings, the members of the joint conference, little 5 bios on our commissioners but also the state commissioners 6 and also it will give you information about pre-hearings. 7 So, for example, the Wyoming field hearing is June 8 23. There will be a pre-hearing roundtable in Montana on 9 June 21. I mean, that's the kind of information that we're 10 posting, all of this information on the website. 11 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Comments off mike.) 12 MR. PEPPER: Yes. The question is, "Is the 180- 13 day review for AOL/Time Warner a self-imposed deadline?" 14 Yes, it is. It is our processing guidelines. That assumes 15 that, for example, when there's a request for information 16 they reply in a timely fashion and so on, yes. 17 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Comments off mike.) 18 MR. PEPPER: Yes. The question was, "Are we going 19 to meet that deadline?" The answer is yes. Other 20 questions? If not... 21 MS. BROWN: Thank you. Thank you, Bob. 22 As we have been working in a very focused way on 23 these competition issues we've also been working in a very 24 focused way on what we call the opportunity issues. 25 Cornell, I think you -- I've heard this presentation before 26 1 and it's really -- it's a pleasure to hear it again. So go 2 ahead. 3 MR. BROOKS: Okay. Good morning. I just would 4 like to let all of you know that I'm standing in for my 5 colleague, CIB Bureau Chief Lorraine Miller. 6 I want to share with you some of the exciting work 7 of the Opportunity Steering Committee. I should say at the 8 outset that the Opportunity Steering Committee was 9 actually -- and the strategic plan -- was actually predated 10 by an opportunity team which cuts across all the bureaus and 11 represents the collective efforts of lawyers, economists, 12 and other FCC staff. 13 In a real sense the work of the Opportunity 14 Steering Committee and team represents the collective 15 aspirations of the FCC and the best ideals of this country. 16 Chairman Kennard has articulated an over arching goal of 17 promoting opportunities for all Americans to benefit from 18 the communications revolution. That is, ensuring that this 19 communications revolution is, in fact a revolution of 20 inclusion, that is the benefits extend to Americans from 21 every walk of life, of every hue, and every economic 22 station. 23 This goal will be realized through essentially 24 three objectives. That is ensuring access for all Americans 25 to existing and future communications services, promoting 27 1 opportunities to expand direct participation in existing and 2 future communication businesses, and, three, fostering a 3 consumer-friendly marketplace. 4 There are four cornerstones, if you will, or 5 substantive areas that we work in, those being access, 6 employment, ownership, and consumer protection. With 7 respect to access, our first objective is to insure that all 8 Americans have access to the basic telecommunication 9 services. While it is hard to imagine telephone service as 10 a fundamental lifeline to our children, to our jobs, to our 11 homes, it is hard to imagine a life without this lifeline. 12 There are in fact many Americans, Native Americans and 13 residents of rural America who do not have such a lifeline. 14 The FCC has conducted and will conduct field 15 hearings to explore low penetration rates for telephone 16 services, to two particular communities, Native American and 17 rural. The FCC has initiated proceedings and is preparing 18 policy proposals to encourage the extension of wire line 19 services to tribal lands and other unserved areas and to 20 expand telecommunications subsidies -- or rather, expand 21 subsidies to telecommunication carriers where the wireline, 22 terrestrial wireless or satellite that serve these areas. 23 We are also considering proposals to extend 24 wireline telecommunication services to tribal lands. 25 Specifically, we are considering a number of proposals to, 28 1 in effect, help expand the local calling areas around 2 reservations so that it makes it less expensive to make a 3 call. Many of us who live in the metropolitan area can call 4 out to Springfield or Vienna or Reston and not incur a long 5 distance charge. That is, in fact, not the case on 6 reservations where the calling areas can be quite small. So 7 we're considering proposals to make it easier to make such 8 calls without incurring exorbitant fees and then to also 9 help subsidize the monthly bill to insure that more Native 10 Americans enjoy the telephone services that all of us take 11 for granted. 12 We've also expanded access to technology and 13 information services to our children. For example, in the 14 first year of the E-Rate Program, the FCC allocated $1.7 15 billion to connect 80,000 schools and libraries to the 16 Internet, thereby assisting children in disadvantaged 17 communities and corners of our country to obtain access to 18 critical communications services to help them bridge the 19 digital divide but in a real sense to help all of us bridge 20 the digital divide. 21 We are also connecting -- or rather, wiring -- 22 600,000 classrooms to the Internet, literally touching 40 23 million school children and putting some of the poorest 24 children in poor and rural schools in touch with a high- 25 technology future. 29 1 The Commission has also implemented a $40 million 2 rural telemedicine program. Of course, access means very 3 little if it excludes the one-out-of-five Americans with 4 disabilities. Through the Disability Task Force and the 5 leadership of Chairman Kennard the FCC has adopted rules to 6 implement Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. 7 These rules require telecommunication 8 manufacturers and providers to design their products and 9 services so that 54 million Americans with disabilities have 10 what the market promises and with fairness demands, that is 11 access to the benefits of telecommunications technology. 12 The FCC is also recently proposed that commercial 13 television broadcasters in the top 25 television markets and 14 the largest national video programming distributors 15 introduce video descriptions in their transmissions to allow 16 Americans with visual disabilities to better follow 17 television programs. 18 Now, we all understand that broadband is critical 19 to bridging the digital divide. The Commission's broadband 20 initiative seeks to bridge the divide by increasing 21 opportunities for access to technology as band width 22 capacity is expanded. 23 Chairman Kennard recently released a definitive 24 report by the staff of the Cable Services Bureau on the 25 state of broadband deployment and the industry. The report 30 1 concluded quite simply that broadband industry is in its 2 infancy and regulatory restraint continues to be warranted 3 at this time. 4 Let me make a note about one of the more exciting 5 programs at the FCC, that is the low-power radio initiative. 6 The Commission has promoted a policy to increase new entrant 7 ownership opportunities through lower broadcast licensing. 8 These rules will empower houses of worship, churches, 9 synagogues, non-profits, high school students, and community 10 groups to literally invigorate the chorus of voices on the 11 radio. 12 This new low-power FM service will consist of 2 13 classes of radio stations, those with 10 watts and those 14 with 100 watts. The 10 watt stations will reach a service 15 area between 1 and 2 miles and the 100 watt stations will 16 reach a station of approximately 3.5 miles. While that may 17 not seem large relative to commercial radio, it can mean a 18 great deal to a church or synagogue or community group. 19 Now, in the global village we understand the role 20 of neighbors and that access, technology access, must 21 transcend borders. Through the Developing Countries 22 Initiative Chairman Kennard and the International Bureau are 23 seeking to provide expert consultation on technical, policy, 24 and regulatory matters to developing countries in Africa, 25 Asia, and Latin America. This initiative was designed to 31 1 utilize the FCC's recognized expertise and telecommunication 2 regulation to assist developing countries in building 3 independent regulatory agencies to promote competition, 4 liberalization, and privatization of their own local 5 markets. 6 Chairman Kennard and FCC staff have traveled to 7 South Africa and Latin America and met with government 8 officials, telecommunication leaders, and citizens to 9 promote the goals of this initiative. In fact, we've 10 published two manuals, one entitled Connecting the Globe: A 11 Guide to Building Global Information Community. 12 The FCC has also established permanent outreach 13 programs through public mailings, a website, and public 14 forums to encourage small minority and women-owned firms to 15 become aware or apprise them of the opportunities within the 16 telecommunications industry. 17 The second cornerstone or pillar of the 18 opportunity agenda is employment, that is striving to 19 promote equal employment opportunities within the industry. 20 Continuing a 30-year commitment to fostering equal 21 employment opportunities in the broadcast industry the 22 Federal Communications Commission adopted new EEO rules 23 which affirm the Commission's long standing anti- 24 discrimination rule and emphasize broad out reach to 25 qualified job candidates in positions in radio, television, 32 1 and cable companies. 2 The order prohibits discrimination based on race, 3 religion, color, national origin, or gender. It leaves the 4 EEO docket open to facilitate the submission of information 5 relevant to employment disparities in broadcast and cable. 6 These new rules also require that broadcast licensees widely 7 disseminate information about job openings to all segments 8 of the community to insure that qualified applicants, 9 including minorities and women have sufficient opportunities 10 to do what we all want to do, that is compete. 11 The third pillar, our cornerstone of our agenda is 12 ownership, that is it represents our efforts to insure that 13 all Americans can compete for ownership opportunities, FCC 14 licenses. The Chairman has initiated a series of studies 15 pursuant to Section 257 of the Act to assess those market 16 entry barriers facing small firms and firms owned by 17 minorities and women. 18 These studies examine a variety of questions and 19 subject areas, that is sales and transfer of broadcast 20 licenses in the secondary market, including an examination 21 of the barriers to market entry and firm growth and to what 22 extent is there connection between race of the station 23 owners and the content of news and public affairs 24 programming on radio and television stations, whether to 25 what extent there is racial and gender discrimination in the 33 1 capital markets, and the extent to which firms owned by 2 minorities and women have been able to compete successfully 3 for FCC licenses through auctions, the broadcast-licensing 4 process, and the secondary market. 5 We expect to complete these studies sometime early 6 in the summer and upon completion and culmination of these 7 studies we expect to have a public dialog about the results. 8 The Chairman has also initiated a variety of 9 public/private partnerships, realizing that the FCC cannot 10 do its work alone. We work with a variety of people in the 11 private sector to create creative partnerships to extend 12 these benefits of the telecommunications industry. For 13 example, the Chairman has encouraged the development of a 14 program to connect or put into contact graduates of 15 historically black colleges in Virginia with high technology 16 firms in Northern Virginia to insure that those who prepare 17 themselves are able to compete and take advantage and 18 fulfill the opportunities of this high-technology economy. 19 We've also worked with an inter-agency working 20 group on advertising to address the problem of 21 discriminatory advertising practices. This working group 22 has looked, for example, at the way the government 23 advertises and looked at ways to reform the contracting 24 process to insure that small and minority advertising firms 25 are able to compete for government contracts. 34 1 The final pillar is consumer protection. The 2 Consumer Information Bureau has undertaken several important 3 consumer-protection initiatives, including a joint FCC/FTC 4 policy statement on truth in advertising, the creation of a 5 federal and state database on slamming and cramming, and 6 work on the Commission's slamming rules. 7 The CIB has also created a Consumer Education 8 Office which does outreach in education and it has hosted a 9 very successful forum on confusing billing practices with 10 state regulators, consumer groups, and numerous carriers and 11 billing agents. 12 Having said that, I'd like to say as a closing 13 note that the work of the Opportunity Team and Steering 14 Committee represents the very best of what we desire for our 15 children, for this American community, and what we want for 16 the future. It represents the very best of the Commission. 17 Having said that, I'm prepared to take any questions you 18 might have. 19 MS. BROWN: Questions? 20 Thank you, Cornell. On the Spectrum Steering 21 Committee also done an inter-agency kind of approach to get 22 at the spectrum issues and Dale has headed that committee. 23 Thank you. 24 MR. HATFIELD: Thank you, Kathy. As I'm sure most 25 of you know, one of the Commission's core responsibilities 35 1 is managing the use of the nation's airwaves in the public 2 interest for all non-federal governmnet and in private 3 sector and state and local government users. Of course, 4 it's a difficult task because we have to balance and try to 5 promote competition at the same time that we're assuring 6 other public interest goals are met. By that I mean, for 7 example, while we want additional wireless competition we 8 also must insure that there's adequate spectrum available 9 for applications such as public safety, scientific uses of 10 the spectrum such as radio astronomy and so forth. 11 It is a real challenge because we are facing just 12 really burgeoning demands that make this a particularly 13 challenging topic. And, of course, as you all realize, 14 sometimes wireless is a desirable form of communication, 15 being able to do things without wires, but of course in many 16 cases wireless is the only feasible way of communicating at 17 all, there are just no other alternatives. So how well we 18 go about managing the spectrum has enormous consequences to 19 the nation as a whole. 20 Just saying a little bit about the burgeoning 21 demand by giving examples. In 1993 there were only 15 22 million wireless phones in America. Of course, I'm only old 23 enough to remember when there was only about 100,000 but 24 that's a different story. Today, of course, there are over 25 86 million cellular phones and PCS phones out there. Very 36 1 importantly, one of the things that's driving, of course, 2 this growth is the rapidly declining cost. 3 The wireless bills have dropped by some 40 4 percent, subscribership has increased over 4 fold and, 5 really importantly, 75 percent of Americans now have a 6 choice of 5 or more wireless carriers. What this translates 7 into, of course, if you're going to have multiple suppliers 8 and get all the benefits of competition, including lower 9 prices and innovations, you've got to have enough spectrum 10 to accommodate multiple suppliers, it sort of follows. It's 11 probably stating the obvious. 12 In addition to just this example, we're faced, as 13 I sit here today, with a whole bunch of petitions from 14 people seeking new spectrum allocations for all kinds of new 15 mobile services, both private and the new third-generation 16 cellular-type systems for satellite services, fixed and 17 mobile, for telemetry, tracking, and so forth. In addition 18 to these sort of formal requests -- one of the neat things 19 being an engineer here at the Commission, one of the neat 20 things about my job is, of course, I have people coming into 21 my office almost daily proposing new uses of spectrum. 22 I've had in the last week or so people coming in 23 who are going to try to engage in commercial space 24 activities. In the past, of course, most of the space 25 activities have been carried out by the government and of 37 1 course using government spectrum but these are people who 2 want to do commercial things and, of course, it's 3 appropriate they come to us and ask where we're going to get 4 spectrum to be able to do these things. It is tough. 5 Another example, just recently some people have 6 come in with some new ground-based location systems that 7 could really have important consequences for more efficient 8 transportation system, for public safety and so forth. But, 9 again, where do we find the spectrum to do that? 10 And then of course I think it's very apparent that 11 one of our most important challenges that we've already 12 talked about here this morning is how to increase 13 competition in the last mile. How do we make -- facilitate 14 us having more than one or two carriers serving our 15 communications service requirements? 16 We've been very encouraged by the increasing 17 competition, for example, between DSL technology used by 18 telephone companies to provide high speed Internet access 19 and cable modems offered by cable television systems to do 20 the same thing. But, you know, you really want more than 21 two. I think our experience in cellular has demonstrated 22 that two competitors is nice but you really get the benefits 23 of competition when you get four or five or six competitors. 24 As a practical matter, of course, that means that 25 some of those must be wireless and having said that, of 38 1 course, that implies we've got to find spectrum to 2 accommodate them. So we've got to accommodate both the 3 increasing demand for existing services plus entirely new 4 services that so many entrepreneurs are out there dreaming 5 up and thinking about even as we sit here this morning. 6 So our challenge is to find some new spectrum for 7 these new services and to accommodate this growth. When you 8 sort of step back and say what are some techniques for doing 9 that one, of course, is by increased sharing. You have -- I 10 mean, essentially all the really usable spectrum is now 11 occupied by somebody or at least licensed to somebody. And 12 if you're going to accommodate new users, one of the 13 techniques, of course, is to facilitate or in some cases 14 force sharing between the incumbents and new entrants. Of 15 course incumbents often times resist this and, more 16 importantly from our stand point here, it raises extremely 17 interesting, to say the least, technical issues of how you 18 facilitate such sharing, for example, between satellite 19 systems and terrestrial systems. 20 Another way, of course, of finding more spectrum, 21 in effect, is by increasing the efficiency with which we use 22 the existing spectrum, trying to increase the number of bits 23 we can get through a given amount of band width and also by 24 using compression techniques to reduce the amount of bits we 25 actually have to transmit. 39 1 We're seeing, of course, that in the digital 2 television situation today, whereby converting from analog 3 to digital the existing stations can still transmit the same 4 amount of information, actually increase the technical 5 quality of what they're sending but at the same time free up 6 enormous amounts of band width for other uses. 7 Another alternative, of course, is band clearing. 8 That's essentially taking people that are in existing band, 9 moving them out in order to accommodate additional people or 10 new services. The difficulty there, of course, is, well, 11 people resist moving, obviously, but also, of course, you 12 want to try to find a new place for them and that sort of 13 just compounds the problem. Again, to move them some place 14 else you also have to find spectrum for them. Sometimes 15 that can be done by moving them higher up in the radio 16 frequencies but that presents some challenges as well. So, 17 that's another technique. 18 Of course, then, most interesting, and this is 19 where I have the most fun, of course, is new technologies 20 that can lead to better use of the spectrum. I've got a 21 couple here to mention, software-defined radios. These are 22 radios that essentially are like computers that can adjust 23 themselves to the environment that they're in and can also 24 do things very quickly. They can move from one spot that's 25 congested to a spot that's not congested in more or less 40 1 real time. So that way we could free up some spectrum that 2 otherwise might be sitting idle. 3 Ultrawide band is another technology, relatively 4 new technology that operates by transmitting radio signals 5 at very, very low levels but over a very, very wide 6 bandwidth and they sort of, in effect, hide under the 7 existing services and you can accommodate perhaps some 8 additional users that way. It raises some very interesting 9 issues ins terms of interference to existing services but 10 could go a long way in helping us fit in additional people. 11 So shifting then to the strategic plan as sort of 12 reflecting what I've said so far, we emphasize really two 13 things, increasing the efficiency of spectrum use and making 14 more spectrum available. Let me say just a little bit more 15 about that. Here again on the increasing efficiency of 16 spectrum use, that's like saying, "Gee, we want to increase 17 the miles per gallon that we get from our cars. That's one 18 way of stretching our oil supply." The other way of course 19 is just to find more oil, and of course that's the second 20 point I have on the slide. So increased efficiency and 21 increased availability are the two things that we were 22 stressing in the plan. 23 In terms of efficiency I won't go into a lot of 24 detail but one of the ways of increasing efficiency is by 25 allowing more flexible allocations. It just takes -- the 41 1 nature of the process here to change an allocation, it just 2 takes time to give the public its opportunity to comment or 3 often, of course, challenge in court and so forth. 4 So one of the ways of facilitating reallocations 5 is let people respond to the marketplace and just change the 6 services that they're providing, like I say, in response to 7 marketplace demands, just like the rest of the economy 8 works. 9 Another course, opportunity is relaxing our 10 service rules. In the distant past we often times were very 11 specific about the technology that people can use in the 12 bands that they have but in Internet time where things are 13 moving so fast we just don't have the luxury of taking years 14 to make those types of decisions. So by relaxing the 15 service rules it means that somebody can introduce a new 16 more spectrum efficient technology and do it quickly. 17 Eliminate bottlenecks is another point there. 18 That's, again, making sure that we're not the bottleneck and 19 one of the best ways, as we're suggesting of course, to do 20 that is to rely on more marketplace forces. Of course, the 21 Commission has been doing that and we certainly want to 22 continue to do that while still protecting the other aspects 23 of the public interest that I mentioned before. Of course 24 we just must continue to improve sharing both between 25 satellite systems and terrestrial systems, for example, and 42 1 between federal governmnet and non-federal governmnet use as 2 well. 3 Some of the things we're talking about in terms of 4 increased availability include creating incentives to free 5 up spectrum for new services. This involves things like 6 voluntary agreements. In other words, a lot of this, I 7 think, can be accomplished by facilitating agreements 8 between existing spectrum holders. We certainly want to 9 encourage that. 10 Promotion of innovative technology, we've already 11 talked about ultrawide band and software-defined radios. We 12 need to adjust our rules to allow rapid deployment of 13 innovative technology. 14 Encourage the development of active secondary 15 markets. This is a particularly interesting -- of 16 particular personal interest to me. I think the Commission 17 has done quite a good job in getting spectrum into the hands 18 of the public quickly through the auction process. The 19 problem or a potential problem is we don't see as many 20 transactions after the spectrum is out there between people 21 who for at least a short period of time have too much 22 spectrum that they don't need immediately but are holding 23 for some long term usage and somebody who has maybe a short 24 term need. 25 One of the things we're very interested in is 43 1 facilitating the market activity here so the person who has 2 some capacity available could lease it, in effect, or 3 sublease it, in effect, to somebody who has a demand. We've 4 been having some very interesting meetings recently on that 5 topic trying to figure out how we can promote a more active 6 secondary market. 7 I'll say later we've got a forum coming up, a 8 public forum coming up at the end of May, May 31, which 9 we're going to invite the public into give us some 10 information and some suggestions on how we might facilitate 11 those markets. 12 Of course we need to coordinate more actively with 13 state and local officials to insure the public safety needs 14 are met and also the public safety uses the spectrum it has 15 in an efficient way. Of course we need to continue to 16 deploy new spectrum as it becomes available. 17 Let me turn a little bit more specific now. As 18 part of the strategic plan we've created what we call 19 internally the Spectrum Policy Executive Committee or SPEC. 20 It is made up of the chiefs of OET, the Mass Media Bureau, 21 International Bureau, the Wireless Bureau, and OPP. So the 22 five of us get together on a regular basis and we attempt to 23 identify the major spectrum issues and coordinate among 24 ourselves and review, of course, from a high-level basis our 25 major spectrum initiatives. 44 1 We are also looking, as notes here, at some 2 specific cross-bureau items. As was mentioned before, 3 sometimes these things come out where they involve more than 4 one bureau and so we've identified a couple of those that 5 we're pursuing very vigorously. The first is the secondary 6 market initiatives that I talked about before that Chairman 7 Kennard raised in his speech down at PCI last February. 8 We're also doing something very interesting. 9 We're serving -- Pepper mentioned best practices in his talk 10 -- we're also doing the same thing because other countries 11 are using different approaches to spectrum management, we've 12 often been a leader but other countries are doing some 13 interesting things now too. So we're doing a little bit of 14 benchmarking here to make sure that we're doing everything 15 we can to make sure -- well, we're trying to make sure that 16 we're doing things in the best possible manner by, like I 17 say, benchmarking with what other countries are doing. 18 Let me kind of wrap up here quickly by talking 19 about some of the accomplishments that we've been able to 20 achieve. I should say that not all of these are as a result 21 of the SPEC but in general are things that we're quite 22 pleased have been accomplished here in the last few months. 23 One of the major ones, of course, was adopting a policy 24 statement which outlines our principles of spectrum 25 management and actually identifies over 200 megahertz of 45 1 spectrum that we'll be allocating for new services. 2 The first time the Commission has ever done that, 3 sort of try to step back and take a long term view of what 4 the inventory of spectrum we currently have available in the 5 principles and so forth that we will use in allocating it to 6 specific uses. 7 We've also intensified our relationships, tried to 8 build better relationships with our colleagues over at NTI, 9 which as you all know is responsible for the federal 10 governmnet use of the spectrum. You know, we share this 11 resource and we need to do a better job of sharing between 12 the two agencies. We've taken some initiatives along that 13 line. 14 Another major accomplishment, of course, is 15 relation to the upcoming World Radio Conference which starts 16 week after next in Istanbul dealing with third-generation 17 wireless spectrum. We've come up with a U.S. position on 18 that and, of course, when that conference is over, of 19 course, then we'll have some work to do to implement the 20 results of that conference. 21 Let me just here just essentially stop. Here are 22 some major, actually, allocations proceedings that we've 23 recently completed. I'll just display them there. I won't 24 bother to take the time to go down and read through them but 25 they are all of fairly major significance in terms of the 46 1 services that they will enable. 2 Finally, just looking ahead at some major 3 initiatives. I've already mentioned both the ultrawide band 4 and the software-defined radio technology. We expect to 5 have our Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the ultra wide 6 band out very quickly, very shortly now. We have a Notice 7 of Inquiry already out on software-defined radio technology. 8 And we're anxious to see the results of the comments that 9 come in on both of those proceedings. 10 I already mentioned the public forum on secondary 11 markets. I'm very anxious to see what we can do there 12 because I think there are some real potential payoff in this 13 initiative that Chairman Kennard mentioned in February. 14 We have auctions ongoing, as you probably know, 15 right now at the spectrum at 39 gigahertz. We have some 16 upcoming auctions in the 700 mhz range, this is in the 17 spectrum that's been reallocated from broadcasting to other 18 wireless uses and also upcoming for broadband PCS. And, of 19 course, I already mentioned the World Radio Conference 20 preps. 21 So, that's it. I'd be glad to answer any 22 questions or take any comments. 23 MS. BROWN: Anybody? Thank you, Dale. 24 MR. HATFIELD: Thank you. 25 MS. BROWN: I should mention that during the last 47 1 year, year and a half under our approach, we have made two 2 very significant structural changes in the agency. That is, 3 we've formulated an Enforcement Bureau and a Consumer 4 Information Bureau. Those bureaus now have got a number of 5 months under their -- five months we're up and running. We 6 have already seen significant differences in the way we as 7 an agency approach our work. 8 The results we're getting and the enforcement 9 emphasis that the Chairman has asked us to take is one where 10 we move from sort of rulemaking to ensuring that the rules 11 actually work. It has entailed a lot of bringing parties 12 together to work out intercompany problems, to work out 13 interindustry issues and to work out consumer/industry 14 issues. We think it is already a success and we are excited 15 about seeing how the year goes. 16 Similarly, on the consumer side, by consolidating 17 our consumer efforts we are able, I hope we are able to 18 upgrade our systems to allow consumers better access to us 19 and us better access to them, more information to folks who 20 need it, to be able to process our informal complaints 21 faster, as well as our formal complaints and to be able to 22 provide outreach to the constituent groups that need access 23 to us. Our Disabilities Rights Office we're extraordinarily 24 proud of and very happy to have I think some extraordinary 25 people on board to lead that effort. We've seen real 48 1 effort, not only just effort but real results. 2 So I think those two things have happened. The 3 third thing is our own internal analysis of our licensing 4 functions which we have completed an options review 5 internally on how we might look at our licensing functions. 6 There are any number of options that are now before the 7 senior management to take a hard look at to think about next 8 steps there. 9 So when I look at all of this and see all of what 10 we've accomplished really in 18 months you have to know how 11 proud we feel. This effort has been a steady focused effort 12 by our senior management and by our employees under the 13 leadership of our chairman to insure that we are, one, 14 focused on those things that we need to accomplish; that we 15 have a plan to accomplish them. And so we started with the 16 strategic plan but we have used an implementation schedule 17 that we ourselves internally stick to. 18 We do quarterly reports. We report out where we 19 are. We check ourselves if we haven't met our goals and we 20 recommit ourselves the next quarter. You find them and you 21 get a lot of work done. So to do that you first focus on a 22 plan, good management -- we have the best team, I think, in 23 the federal government here at the FCC. 24 We have the best senior team and we have the best, 25 I believe, work force that any agency has in this city. 49 1 Then we require results. We are holding ourselves to our 2 goals and we are making sure that we get things done. 3 So we feel very proud of the work we've done under 4 this plan. There are some hurdles, budget being the biggest 5 one. I never hesitate to mention it because to get that 6 work done and to really get a transition that is workable 7 and that you can actually do you need money to do it. So we 8 will keep saying that out loud and hopefully folks will 9 listen to us. 10 The workload is a hurdle. We every day have such 11 enormous work to do that to plan for the future is sometimes 12 difficult when you are dealing with the present but we're 13 trying to prioritize present and future. We're doing it, we 14 think, the best we can. 15 There are always the cultural issues. An agency 16 has operated a particular way for a long time and the 17 industry which relates to it has operated the same way for a 18 long time and the constituent groups who relate to the 19 agency have operated the same way a long time. Thus, to get 20 everybody comfortable with changing the way they operate 21 takes a lot of time and effort. 22 Again, I think under a strong leader that this can 23 happen and is happening. So I thank all of you for making 24 the presentations today and I thank all of you for coming to 25 listen to us. Any other questions? 50 1 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Comments off mike.) 2 MS. BROWN: How do I do that? 3 AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Comments.) 4 MR. PEPPER: Question on the phone, Jeff? 5 OPERATOR: We have a question from Peggy 6 Abrantsia's line. Go ahead. 7 MS. ARBANITAS: I'm sorry, Peggy Arbanitas 8 (phonetic). Thank you. I'm a consumer down here in 9 Florida. You know, you do well at the FCC to inform 10 consumers but I'm talking in the nature of portability. 11 These are the public's numbers, you take your number at the 12 same location and go to another carrier -- what I've 13 discovered for the last two years being in public service, 14 commissioned dockets in Florida, is I do not know at the 15 public service commission level or the FCC level because the 16 95-116 Portability Order was an FCC order. You've not 17 educated the competing companies, the CLECs that compete 18 against the ILECs. 19 No federal tariffs were filed last year nationally 20 and the only way they filed these tariffs, they were 21 supposed to be LMP capable or permanent number portability 22 and still in Florida we have two ILECs who are not 100 23 percent LMP capable, which means it is all the competing 24 companies can do to deal with the wiring and the 25 infrastructure. They do not know that they do not have to 51 1 wait six months to port a number if you are in the top 100 2 MSAs that should have been accomplished December 30, 1998, 3 as per the third order. 4 So what I'm seeing is it's nice you do great 5 things for the consumers, if the competing companies are 6 going to compete against the bidder companies sharing is not 7 a nice word. How are you going to help the smaller 8 companies understand FCC orders and the nature of 9 portability? Thank you. 10 MS. BROWN: I think that's -- let me just take it 11 from the general level and then to the more specific level. 12 I think that you're right that the information kinds of 13 efforts we're making for consumers generally need to be made 14 for new entrants into the market. We agree. 15 We actually have a Small Business Office that 16 really we need to think about how that works with our 17 Enforcement Bureau and our Information Bureau on how we make 18 new information available and portability is a very good one 19 to talk about. 20 As to the specific issue, I'm afraid I don't know 21 where we are in the exact implementation. I thought we were 22 going forward on that and that we were still in the midst of 23 it but we can get a specific answer back to you if that 24 would be helpful. 25 Any other questions? I thank you all for coming. 52 1 I think that wraps it up. 2 (Whereupon, at 11:23 a.m., the meeting was 3 adjourned.) 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14 // 15 // 16 // 17 // 18 // 19 // 20 // 21 // 22 // 23 // 24 // 25 // 0 1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE 2 3 FCC DOCKET NO.: N/A 4 CASE TITLE: Strategic Plan Implementation Forum 5 HEARING DATE: April 28, 2000 6 LOCATION: Washington, DC 7 I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence 8 are contained fully and accurately on the tapes and notes 9 reported by me at the hearing in the above case before the 10 Federal Communications Commission. 11 Date: _4-28-00__ _____________________________ 12 Sharon Bellamy 13 Official Reporter 14 Heritage Reporting Corporation 15 1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 600 16 Washington, D.C. 20005-4018 17 TRANSCRIBER'S CERTIFICATE 18 I hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence 19 were fully and accurately transcribed from the tapes and 20 notes provided by the above named reporter in the above case 21 before the Federal Communications Commission. 22 Date: _5-05-00__ ______________________________ 23 Rose Kolb 24 Official Transcriber 25 Heritage Reporting Corporation 26 PROOFREADER'S CERTIFICATE 27 I hereby certify that the transcript of the 28 proceedings and evidence in the above referenced case that 29 was held before the Federal Communications Commission was 30 proofread on the date specified below. 31 Date: _5-08-00__ ______________________________ 32 Glen Arkin 33 Official Proofreader 34 Heritage Reporting Corporation