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 STATEMENT  OF  CHAIRMAN  MICHAEL  K.  POWELL 
 Re:  Facilitating  the  Provision  of  Spectrum-  Based  Services  to  Rural  Areas  and  Promoting  Opportunities  for  Rural  Telephone  Companies  to  Provide  Spectrum-  Based 
 Services  (rel.  December  11,  2002). 
 Spectrum  policy  should  not  be  a  blunt  instrument  but  a  precision  tool  enabling  us  to  facilitate  as  many  services  as  possible  to  benefit  the  American  people.  As  the  work  of 
 the  Spectrum  Policy  Task  Force  has  made  clear,  the  first  step  in  wireless  policymaking  is  to  consider  the  spectrum  environment  in  question  –  from  the  kind  and  number  of  users  to 
 the  type  of  radios  in  use.  Our  flexibility  should  allow  us  to  tailor  a  spectrum  policy  to  the  rural  spectrum  environment  that  takes  advantage  of  each  dimension  of  spectrum:  space, 
 frequency,  power  and  time.  By  the  questions  we  ask  today,  we  hope  to  learn  more  about  the  unique  characteristics  of  rural  spectrum  America.  Does  the  lack  of  congestion  create 
 an  opportunity  for  more  relaxed  technical  rules?  How  do  build  out  requirements  affect  deployment?  Can  we  do  more  with  an  unlicensed  service  model?  How  well  have 
 partitioning  and  disaggregation  worked  to  get  rural  spectrum  into  the  hands  of  those  who  would  use  it?  Are  there  other  market-  based  mechanisms  we  can  use  to  achieve  these 
 goals?  Rural  America  has  greatly  benefited  from  the  competition  brought  about  by  spectrum-  based  services.  But  those  benefits  have  been  achieved  through  nation-  wide 
 policy  making.  It  is  my  hope  and  expectation  that  through  a  more  tailored  spectrum  policy  process  we  can  deliver  even  greater  benefits  to  rural  consumers. 
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