STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI Re: Connect America Fund, WC Docket No. 10-90; Universal Service Reform – Mobility Fund, WT Docket No. 10-208 It’s a common feature of my road trips to explore the digital divide: My phone gets a strong signal in an urban center, but that signal slowly, surely fades into one or no bars in rural areas. That’s the mobile aspect of the digital divide that rural Americans know too well. Changing this state of affairs is critical to giving every American a chance to participate in the digital economy. That’s why I’ve made it the FCC’s top priority to extend high-speed broadband to places that still lack access. Today, we take weedy but important steps toward addressing that priority: We’re resolving outstanding questions about the Mobility Fund II Order. For instance, today’s Second Order on Reconsideration clarifies the collocation requirement for funding recipients and helps small companies by relaxing the letter-of-credit requirement. This will bring us even closer to holding the reverse auction and making wireless service ubiquitous. Through this and other measures, we will continue to connect Americans on the wrong side of the digital divide. I would like to thank Kirk Burgee, Nathan Eagan, Chelsea Fallon, and Michael Janson from the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force; Valerie Barrish, Erik Beith, Rita Cookmeyer, Chas Eberle, Ben Freeman, Audra Hale-Maddox, Katie Hinton, Bill Huber, Scott Mackoul, Jonathan McCormack, Gary Michaels, Murtaza Nasafi, Kelly Quinn, Paroma Sanyal, Christiaan Segura, Dana Shaffer, Karen Sprung, Donald Stockdale, Cecilia Sulhoff, Patrick Sun, and Margaret Wiener from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau; and Christian Hoefly, Heidi Lankau, Sue McNeil, Alex Minard, Kris Monteith, Ken Lynch, and Gilbert Smith from the Wireline Competition Bureau.