SPEECH BY REED HUNDT CHAIRMAN FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION IOWA DISTANCE LEARNING ASSOCIATION THIRD ANNUAL CONFERENCE (AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY) MARCH 1, 1996 FULFILLING THE PROMISE Thank you, Dr. McMahill, for that kind introduction, and warm greetings to everyone in Iowa City. Last October I spoke, also via satellite, to the United States Distance Learning Association. At that time we were all waiting for Congress to pass the Telecommunications Act. We eagerly anticipated passage in great part because of all the provisions in the bill to make education and learning easier. Well, the happy event occurred, and the President signed the bill into law on February 8. Now the real work begins to fulfill the new law's promise. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in almost 62 years. It turns communications law on its head. The old law assumed that communications was a natural monopoly. The new law assumes that all parts of the communications marketplace can be made competitive. The new law is intended to end the era of big government in communications and to begin the era of genuine competition. If the new law creates the kind of competition we hope for, educators will soon have a broader, more diverse, cheaper choice of educational services than ever before. With passage of the new law, the country's communications policy is twofold: We are for encouraging private competition in communications, and for guaranteeing public benefits from communications. The new telecommunications law contains 7 Universal Service Principles. These seven pillars are our country's new wisdom that communications services are crucial to the success of our democracy, society, and economy. We are supposed to guarantee that: (1) everyone in the country will have quality service at just, reasonable, and affordable rates (2) all regions of the country will have access to advanced services (3) there will be access for low-income consumers and those in rural and high cost areas (4) all providers of telecommunications services will contribute to ensuring universal service (5) there will be federal and state support mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service (6) all schools, classrooms, health care providers, and libraries will have access to advanced telecommunications services, and (7) other additional principles needed to protect the public interest. Maybe we should think of these seven universal principles as the Communications Bill of Rights. Let me give you some statistics to help you better understand why these principles are so important. A report issued this week by the FCC says as of November 1995, one out of every 16 households did not have phone service. For households with incomes below $15,000, more than 1 out of 10 do not have phone service. In three states the average is that one out of 10 do not have phone service. One out of eight households headed by an African-American, and one out of seven headed by a Hispanic, do not have phone service. And almost 11 percent of unemployed adults do not have phone service. Since being connected to a network is how unemployed people get back into the workforce, this lack of phone service especially hurts the unemployed. And it hurts children to go to schools that are cut off from the information age. In classrooms, phone service is almost nonexistent. In only 9 percent of classrooms is there Internet access -- although the World Wide Web is the path to equal opportunity in education for all children in our country. That means only 10% of children have regular access to advanced telecommunications tools. And those students tend to be in the most affluent schools districts. Further, some privileged students use computers at home -- often the same children that use them at school. Although over 50% of children from high-income families have computers at home, fewer than 5% of children from low-income families do. So we must help children on the lower end of the economic spectrum by giving them the tools they need at school. With passage of the telecommunications law, for the first time in the history of this country we have the chance to help breach the gap between the information haves and have-nots. It does that by hastening the day when 100% of our schools and classrooms will be linked to the information superhighway. I'll tell you why that's so important: Opportunity to succeed in our competitive, information economy depends on technological literacy. At the end of the Second World War the average American needed only a fourth grade education to be in the 50th percentile in salary. In the 1990s, a twelfth grade education is necessary to reach the same level. A college graduate now earns more than twice as much as someone with less than 12 years of education. We now suffer from the greatest gap between high and low income earners in the history of our nation. For each of our children to have his or her fair chance to make the American Dream come true, each needs to be taught both with and about the latest technology. But while the business sector is roaring into the 21st- century information age, 50 million American children go to school in a 19th-century world of chalk-and-blackboard technology. By the beginning of the next century -- less than 4 years from now -- 60% of the new jobs will require skills possessed by only 22% of the young people entering the labor market. Already more than half of high-wage jobs require the use of networked computers. And jobs that require computer use pay about 15% more, on average, than those that do not. The good news is that a recent Education Department study found that we are making progress as a nation in wiring our classrooms. Half of the nation's public schools have hooked up to the Internet. The bad news is that this does not mean the Internet is a tool available to half our classrooms. Nationally, fewer than 10% of schools have local area networks, or LANs, connecting computers to all classrooms. There is a world of difference between the availability of computers in schools, and the availability of computers in each classroom. Teachers and students need to be able to use these tools, but they are not yet widely available. And without giving kids the opportunity to have hands-on experience, computers might as well not be available at all. Further, curriculums haven't changed to keep up with advances in technology, and teachers need to be trained in using the new technology. We're making progress, but we need to do much more. The Department of Education study also found that minority and low-income students are less likely to have classroom access to the Internet than wealthier students. So there continues to be a significant information gap between schools in poor areas and schools in well-off areas. To quote Education Secretary Riley, "Learning on-line must not become a new fault line in American education." The Snowe-Rockefeller-Exon-Kerrey provision of the new law requires telecommunications providers to give schools discounts for telecommunications services so they are affordable. The FCC will soon determine what those discounts should be. In doing so, however, we need to answer such questions as what does "affordable" mean? Should just telephone service be included? Or should it include satellite companies, which play an important role in distance learning? The Snowe-Rockefeller-Exon-Kerrey provision gives us a powerful tool to help ensure that, at least for school children, the economic haves and have-nots will not also become the information haves and have-nots. In fact, on March 9th, the President, together with members of the telecommunications industry, educators, and parents, will jumpstart the networking of California's schools. By the end of this year, 20% of our largest state's classrooms will be on the information superhighway. Of course, Iowa has had its own experience with networking. Through the Iowa Communications Network, Iowa has made great strides toward using technology for economic development, telemedicine and, especially, education. But critics have argued that the ICN is a luxury the state cannot afford -- that if it is such a good idea, it should have been generated by the private sector. The new telecommunications law creates the opportunity to provide low-cost communications, especially for education. One benefit may be that it will help diminish the costs and, therefore, the controversy, over such projects as the ICN. The new law also helps ensure that the 49 million Americans with disabilities will not be left out of the information revolution. One provision requires telecommunications equipment manufacturers and providers to ensure that their equipment and services are accessible to people with disabilities. Another provision ensures that video services are accessible to people who are hearing impaired or visually impaired. The FCC will conduct a study to determine the availability of closed captioning and establish a timetable to make closed captioning more widespread. And we will look into the availability of video descriptions so people who have visual impairments can hear a description of what they cannot see. America's 4 million children with disabilities can have a much, much brighter future if we put communications technology in every classroom. We want screenreaders for those who are visually disabled, E-mail for those who are hearing disabled, and provisions for learning from home for children who are physically disabled. And adults with disabilities will reap the same benefits. There is an increasing awareness of the many benefits of telemedicine. Present applications include storage of records, image processing for diagnostic purposes, transmission of medical images, and computerized remote control of medical equipment. Telemedicine makes it easier to gain quick access to medical databases, such as those for transplant candidates. Emerging applications include real-time transmission of video images for physician-to-physician and physician-to-patient consultations and direct transmission of medical data to hospitals from medical devices to patients at home. These technical and medical marvels can improve the lives of people in countless ways. The FCC wants to remove all barriers that might inhibit the use of telecommunications technology to improve health care. And making them more affordable is an important first step. Under the law, rural health care providers can receive telecommunications services at rates that are reasonably comparable to services charged for similar services in urban areas of the same state. And a study will be conducted to determine, among other things, telemedicine's safety, efficacy, quality of service, and related economic issues. The new telecomunications law is the result of 10 long, hard years of work. How will we know that it is a success? Our success will not be measured by whether we have pleased one company or another, or one member of Congress or another. Our success will be measured by whether, five years from now, American citizens, whether in their hospitals, homes or businesses, or in their classrooms, schools, or libraries have a greater choice of communications providers and services than ever before. If, in five years, there are at least a handful of different companies competing to win our business, then our efforts will have succeeded. What we buy, how we pay, and what we get, will all be different. But if we do right, we will all get more and better services for our money. Perhaps most importantly, we will also know we have succeeded if, five years from now, 100,000 schools and libraries have become communication community hubs where parents, teachers, and students have access to the most advanced communications network in the world. The communications revolution promises to be a great equalizer between the information haves and have-nots. These hubs would help fulfill that promise. Enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the most exciting thing that has happened to me as FCC Chairman. If we get the implementation right, it will open up a wondrous world of learning opportunity for every person in this country. So I pledge to do everything I can to make it work. The FCC is striving to bring the tremendous benefits of the communications revolution to everyone. But we can do even better with your more participation. Please join in our rulemakings. We want to know ahead of time what impact our actions are likely to have. And we need your experience and knowledge. Write to us. Call us. Share your views with us and let us know how we can get it right. But do it soon. We have to implement many important parts of the law in just six months. We have a lot of work to do in a very short time. The opportunities of the communications revolution are limitless. Let's do everything we can to make sure there are opportunities for all. Thank you. -FCC- NEWS March 1, 1996 CHAIRMAN REED HUNDT CALLS SEVEN UNIVERSAL SERVICE PRINCIPLES IN TELECOM ACT "COMMUNICATIONS BILL OF RIGHTS" The seven universal service principles contained in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 should be called the "Communications Bill of Rights," FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said today in a satellite address to the Iowa Distance Learning Association. He said, "These seven pillars are our country's new wisdom that communications services are crucial to the success of our democracy, society, and economy. . . . to guarantee that: (1) everyone in the country will have quality service at just, reasonable, and affordable rates; (2) all regions of the country will have access to advanced services; (3) there will be access for low-income consumers and those in rural and high cost areas; (4) all providers of telecommunications services will contribute to ensuring universal service; (5) there will be federal and state support mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service; (6) all schools, classrooms, health care providers, and libraries will have access to advanced telecommunications services; and (7) other additional principles needed to protect the public interest. "With passage of the telecommunications law, for the first time in the history of this country we have the chance to help breach the gap between the information haves and have- nots. It does that by hastening the day when 100% of our schools and classrooms will be linked to the information superhighway," Hundt said, adding "America's four million children with disabilities will have a much, much brighter future if we put communications technology in every classroom. Hundt continued, "We will also know we have succeeded if, five years from now, 100,000 schools and libraries have become communication community hubs where parents, teachers, and students have access to the most advanced communications network in the world. "Our success will be measured by whether, five years from now, American citizens, whether in their hospitals, homes or businesses, or in their classroom, schools, or libraries have a greater choice of communications providers and services than ever before. If, in five years, there are at least a handful of different companies competing to win our business, then our efforts will have succeeded," Hundt said. - FCC -