STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL Re: Inquiry Concerning the Development of Advanced Telecommunications Capability to All Americans in a Reasonable and Timely Fashion, and Possible Steps to Accelerate Such Deployment Pursuant to Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as Amended by the Broadband Data Improvement Act, GN Docket Nos. 14-126 and 12-228. Broadband is not just a technology, it’s a platform for opportunity. Extending its reach across this country is our new manifest destiny because it is an essential part of modern civic and commercial life. No matter who you are or where you live, you need access to modern communications to have a fair shot at prosperity in the 21 st century. Our report today is our most comprehensive snapshot of where we stand in bringing broadband to all Americans. I am pleased that the report shows that we are making some headway in extending the reach of this service, thanks in no small part to the tremendous investment that communications providers are making to deploy broadband across the country. At the same time, the report highlights places where we have more work to do, namely in rural and Tribal areas. It was just five years ago that the Commission changed our downstream broadband speed threshold from 200 kilobits to 4 Megabits. Today, we up the ante and change that threshold to 25 Megabits. Chairman Wheeler has pressed for this change—and I am pleased to support it. But I, for one, am tired of dreaming small. It’s time to dream big. This is the country that put a man on the moon. We invented the Internet. We can do audacious things—if we set big goals. I think our new threshold should be 100 Megabits. I think anything short of that shortchanges our children, our future, and our digital economy. I don’t think reaching a benchmark like this is easy—but nothing worthwhile ever is. Still, the history of technological innovation is rife with examples of the great depths of American known- how. It is time to put that know-how to work and use it to bring really big broadband everywhere.