STATEMENT OF COMMISSONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL Re: Rural Call Completion, WC Docket No. 13-39. For too long, consumers in rural America—and the carriers that serve them—have complained about dropped calls, missed calls, and connections that fail. This is unacceptable. After all, failure to complete calls to rural subscribers can cut families off from relatives in rural areas, lead rural businesses to lose customers, and create dangerous delays for first responder communications. This is a hard and unfortunately ubiquitous problem. One survey found that as many as 80 percent of rural carriers have experienced rural call completion failures. Our state counterparts also report that rural call completion difficulties are widespread. More than that, they are a serious threat to public safety and consumer welfare in rural America. So today we answer the call to take action. We take steps to fix rural call completion. Specifically, in this Order we put in place new recordkeeping, retention, and reporting requirements. This will help ensure that rural consumers receive service on par with that of their urban counterparts. Moreover, this new data will support our enforcement efforts. That means that when calls fail or quality is unacceptably degraded in rural areas, the Commission will have the data necessary to go after bad actors, vigorously enforce its rules, and finally bring an end to this persistent problem. Thank you to the Wireline Competition Bureau and Enforcement Bureau for your work. The solutions we have here are built on commonsense and transparency. That is why I strongly support this decision and the further rulemaking before us today.