FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Commissioner Chong Discussed Opportunities for Women on the Information Superhighway at the First Women of Wireless Conference November 4, 1994 Washington D.C. FCC Commissioner Rachelle B. Chong addressed a conference, entitled "PCS for Designated Entities," sponsored by Women of Wireless. Her remarks are titled "The Information Superhighway: Women in the Fast Lane." Commissioner Chong, herself a founding member of Women in Telecommunications, a similar California Women's group, congratulated the group on its formation and noted its importance in helping women succeed "in the fiercely competitive world of the telecom industry." Her talk focussed on opportunities for women and the potential of the Information Superhighway to bring real benefits to a broad cross-section of society. She outlined her vision of the coming Information Superhighway and reported on how "the Information Superhighway will bring tangible benefits to those who get linked to this network of networks." She further described a number of "real projects designed to help ordinary people," in the areas of telemedicine, distance learning and tele-commuting. She also reported on the status of the government's efforts in this area, and highlighted that PCS will play an important role as a part of the Information Superhighway. Finally, she urged members to participate in the PCS auctions and encouraged them to "make your own personal mark on the future of our industry." Remarks of Commissioner Rachelle Chong to Women of Wireless Washington, D.C. November 4, 1994 THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY: WOMEN IN THE FAST LANE Introduction Good afternoon. It is a great pleasure to be here at a conference focussing on encouraging women to become owners of PCS licenses. I first want to congratulate the members of Women of Wireless for founding this organization in January 1993. I'd also like to commend you on your recent name change. I had fun the other day debating with one of your members the relative merits of the acronym "WIW," Women in Wireless, versus "WOW," Women of Wireless. All I can say, is "Wow, what a name!" I commend you on your group's vision of encouraging women to be swept up in the telecommunications revolution. Your type of group is very important to the professional growth of women in the communications industry. Madame Curie, the great Polish-born physicist, once said, "You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for [her] own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for humanity." I couldn't agree with Madame Curie more. I see one role of Women of Wireless as being a vehicle to improve its individual members, so they can succeed in the fiercely competitive world of the telecom industry. I myself was a founding member of Women in Telecommunications, or WIT, in Northern California. WIT was started when a handful of professional women in telecommunications decided it would be great to network and learn more about our industry. WIT kicked off with a potluck dinner of twelve women. Now, I'm proud to report that there are 250 WIT members that enjoy educational sessions and social get-togethers. I hope your organization enjoys the same success as WIT. The Information Superhighway My topic today is about why women should be excited about the Information Superhighway, otherwise known as the National Information Infrastructure or NII. I'm first going to describe the Info Superhighway as a concept and then discuss its context in the development of telecommunications in this country. Then, I'll describe my vision of the practical benefits that the Info Superhighway can bring to our lives and what's being done to make that vision a reality. Finally, I'll talk about how women can empower themselves through this network of networks. I. Definition of the Information Superhighway In a nutshell, the idea behind the Information Superhighway is that we will create a network made up of local, regional and national information and telecommunication networks. Let me elaborate. When I and others talk about the Info Superhighway, we usually mean more than just an interconnected system of wires and wireless information paths. The Info- Superhighway is a shorthand way of talking about what some have termed the concept of connectivity, the collective expectations we have for how technology can bring people from different parts of the nation or world closer together. So, the NII concept goes beyond the physical cables and radio waves to embody the ideas and information we all will share on this network. By using the Info Superhighway, we will be able to exchange whatever kind of information we want to send, whether it be an architectural drawing, a sound recording, a video program, or a text document. And we will be able to do it quickly and inexpensively across state borders and, yes, even between continents. It will make no difference whether you want to send the information to your colleague in the office down the hall, to a client in Anchorage, or to your uncle in Paris. Now, some say that all this discussion just generates unfounded expectations. Some people think of the Info Superhighway as "gee-whiz Buck Rogers 21st century" stuff, as gimmicks that won't really change people's everyday lives. I for one think these doubting Thomases are dead wrong. I have looked at history, and I believe that my vision of the future is likely. But I do think that it's important to keep these ideas in perspective. There's a lot of work to be done before we will realize the potential of the Info Superhighway. II. Background Now, people have been thinking about these issues for a long time. In fact, it has taken several generations for the technology and the infrastructure to get to the point where they are today. Admittedly, there are a lot of people who have technophobia. In short, these technophobes have become overwhelmed by the rapid changes in information technology. Why, even in the U.S., there was an independent survey done that found that 74% of people polled have difficulty programming their VCR to record a program at a later time. Another telephone survey by the Wirthlin Group, a Washington polling firm, found that about 16% of 2,000 adults polled admitted that they can't figure out how to stop the darned VCR clock from flashing twelve o'clock, twelve o'clock, twelve o'clock. I thought I would do an informal poll here to see if these statistics are right. Don't be embarrassed; raise your hand if you can't program your VCR or if your VCR still reads twelve o'clock! I digress. The point I would like to make is that the changes we are experiencing are part of a long process by which new technologies are supplanted by even newer technologies. I am reminded of an early act of an august body, the U.S. Senate, to promote effective communication between American cities. 'Twas a noble goal, certainly, one that laid the foundation for our current telecommunications systems. Now, in 1837, the Senate called for proposals to build a "visual telegraph," a system of tall towers, each within sight of the next. At the top of each tower, signalmen would hold up huge wooden signs to relay a message from one tower to the next, and so on to the final destination. Now picture this if you can, tall towers every mile or so, with some poor guy at the top signalling frantically at the next guy. What if it was foggy?! What if one guy fell off the tower?! Talk about network reliability problems with that system! Thankfully, a few months later, in 1838, Samuel Morse demonstrated the first electric telegraph, ushering in a new era of telecommunications, and rendering the Senate's visionary, but not very practical, proposal obsolete. Soon after the telegraph was invented, lines were strung from Washington to Baltimore, then on to Philadelphia, New York and the rest of the country. Even as these lines were being strung, the first patents were issued for "telephonic telegraph receivers." Within eight years, local telephone exchanges had sprouted throughout the East Coast and the first long distance lines were brought into service. And the rest, as they say, is history. Today, three important developments in telecommunications technologies are driving a revolution in the way we will communicate in the future. A critical development has been the development of fiber- optics. Fiber optics offer major advances in signal capacity and clarity over the traditional copper cable. A single fiber-optic strand the width of a human hair can carry 65,000 times more information than copper phone wires and can carry it at least 30 times faster. Another development has to do with the rise of computer technology and dramatic advances in digitalization. Advances in computer technology allow us to take just about any type of information, voice, data, or video, and digitize it, turn it into ones and zeros, so that the information can be manipulated, stored and sent, across a variety of communication pipelines, with the version received almost indistinguishable from that transmitted. Because digital information has the same characteristics regardless of the kind of information transmitted, a variety of systems, wired or wireless, can be used to transmit any type of message. For example, a digital message could be sent via a cable TV network, through the telephone network, or through a computer network. Interchangeable digital information will flow through all of these networks, creating competition and resulting in increased choice for consumers. Finally, advances in mobile communications systems are driving the Information Age revolution. Satellite technology and other mobile services such as PCS promise to provide low-cost, wireless telephone and data transmission service to both rural and urban areas alike throughout the world. They will literally link anyone anywhere to the Info Superhighway. III. Vision of the NII So the inventors and engineers have done their jobs quite well, and we've got all this great new technology. What do we do with it? I believe, as do many others, that the confluence of these technologies will usher in a new era of the Information Age. In this era, I predict that we will rely on pocket-sized personal communicators that will provide us with telephone service, paging, and voicemail. Small laptop computers will deliver to a businesswoman-on-the-go electronic mail, faxes and information services, all wirelessly. These are exactly the applications we expect to see our PCS licensees bring us. At our homes or offices, I predict that we will have an electronic device, maybe a cross between a television and computer, that will provide us with interactive, on-demand entertainment or information tailored to our individual wants and desires. Now, I'd watch "Star Trek" but hey, it's a matter of personal choice. These devices will your personal onramp onto the Information Superhighway. The futurists have lots of ideas of how the Information Superhighway will bring tangible benefits to those who get linked to this network of networks. Here's three examples of how the NII could make a difference in our lives. Distance learning can bring the best teachers in a nation to all students. Picture for a moment, the vision of schools and libraries throughout America linked to each other by a network of wired or wireless paths. What flows over the pipe is not just transmissions of data or voice, but images. Not just still images, but moving video images that will capture your child's interest and imagination. Instead of a high-school French class repeating taped phrases syllable-by-syllable before a teacher, American and French students could team up interactively through a real-time video link and build their French and English language skills together. What a great way to promote cultural understanding between our children! Moreover, the Info Superhighway can connect every school and library in the world to create a Global Digital Library, so every child has the riches of a world's library at the click of a computer mouse. Telemedicine will allow a patient to be examined by a far- away medical specialist via videoconference. X-rays and CAT scans can be delivered via high-speed data lines. This will lower health care costs and improve the quality of care. Telecommuting will also be made easier with the Information Superhighway. This computer technology gives employees more flexibility to work at home via Email or electronic transfer of data, so they may be a better parent to their kids or caretaker to an ill family member. Today, there approximately 7 million telecommuters. It is estimated that by the turn of the century, there will be 25 million. IV. Getting There Well, this all sounds grand, but the hard part of the program is how to build the Information Superhighway. Now, I want to be clear that the U.S. Government does not intend that the NII be a keyword for a new government project to string actual cables or launch satellites, all funded by taxes or some other method. Rather, the government hopes to be a cheerleader and perhaps a referee as we shepherd the process along. Vice President Gore has enunciated five principles which will guide the regulatory aspects of the National Information Infrastructure in the years to come. First, we should encourage private investment. We believe that private enterprise is the best organizational form to foster the kind of innovation and investment necessary to achieve a useful information infrastructure. But privatization is not enough. There must also be competition. That's the second principle. Competition promotes reasonable rates and increases efficiency and innovation. The U.S. has been moving aggressively to introduce competition in all aspects of the telecommunications market. There's been great success in the telephone equipment area, and the long distance market. Next, PCS will provide increased competition to the wireless telephone market, currently dominated by cellular telephone providers. The third principle for the NII, especially important to the FCC, is to put in place flexible regulatory frameworks. These flexible frameworks allow regulators to keep pace with the fast- moving technological innovations. The fourth point for building the NII is that we should provide open access network at nondiscriminatory prices for all information providers. Moreover, we should strive for access for all to have some level of basic service. Fifth, and finally, we should rethink issues relating to universal service in this new world of converging technologies. V. Current NII Efforts Many different parts of the U.S. government have been working hard on the NII. Much progress has been made despite the fact that the current efforts surrounding the NII began less than a year ago. Although the sweeping re-write of the 1934 Communications Act didn't go through this year, Congressional leaders and the Administration indicate that they intend to try again in next year's session. Meanwhile, efforts have moved forward on other fronts. Tax incentives have been passed by Congress. Grants by the National Technology and Information Agency and the Rural Electrification Administration of the Department of Agriculture have stimulated private investment in businesses which will accelerate the development of communications infrastructure and services. At the same time, the staff at the FCC has been working tirelessly to ensure that effective competition is encouraged in the telecommunications market. This can be seen in the licensing of the new PCS industry, which, some analysts estimate, is already responsible for a significant reduction in cellular rates in certain markets in anticipation of competition. The FCC is also leading the effort to encourage flexible regulation. For example, our spectrum auctions will not only award licenses to the bidder most likely to provide service in the most efficient manner, but will result in more rapid licensing than previous methods, such as comparative hearings. Ensuring access for as many Americans as possible is also an important goal. I wanted to describe some grants that have been made by NTIA to encourage a wide variety of people to connect electronically and reap the benefits of the NII vision. For example, the National Science Foundation has connected more than one thousand two hundred colleges and universities to the Internet, broadening access to the 'Net to as many students as possible. There's also a project to support planning for a link between 500 Native American Tribal Governments in the areas of telemedicine, economic development, child care, education, cultural preservation and government. One project that particularly caught my eye is a national network to link child-abuse prevention professionals so that they can more effectively address problems of child abuse and solve them. I emphasize that these are real projects designed to help ordinary people like you and me. They are only the very beginning of the benefits the Info-Superhighway will bring. VI. Women and the Superhighway One of the exciting things about the Information Superhighway is that it will help women as well as other groups. The main way it can help is that information about issues that concern women can be easily shared on a nationwide basis once put on the Information Superhighway. For example, information on women's health issues or battered women could be placed in a database that could be accessed by women, government agencies, clinics and health care providers with a click of a mouse. Many women already use the Internet to network, to connect with each other and share their concerns and expertise. The NII will thus empower women by helping us create a broader community that can be accessed right in your own home. And that brings us back to the wireless world of PCS. PCS is a terrific opportunity for women to operate one of the wireless paths that will serve as one piece of the Information Superhighway. The FCC's licensing procedures encourage women- owned businesses to bid for and win licenses in this brand new industry. I hope that you decide to participate in the PCS Auctions and make your own personal mark on the future of our industry. I also hope that in a couple of years, when the PCS industry is up and running, I'll hear about the great things that Women of Wireless are doing, and I'll think to myself "WIW, what a cool group WOW is!" I'll leave you with one last quote. Margaret Thatcher, the first woman in European history to be elected prime minister, once described success as a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing, hard work and a certain sense of purpose. I wish you all success. Thank you.