Commissioner Gomez on FCC Proceeding on Broadband Deployment

While I have concerns over the potential change of direction this FCC may soon take in how we fulfill our obligation to provide a clear and accurate picture of broadband availability in this country, I am nevertheless supporting this Notice of Inquiry so the public can weigh in on this issue. How we measure this country’s progress of connecting everyone, everywhere to the number one tool to participate in modern day life is important, and we should not retreat from the bold and forward-looking vision this agency had previously embraced ... Under the previous Administration, the FCC correctly set a benchmark of 100/20 Mbps—moving us away from a measurement of mediocrity toward a respectable floor where we can build momentum for future innovation and continued global leadership. Under that same approach, the FCC also set the long-term goal of 1 Gigabit per second download speed, which set this country apart in ways that signaled a forward-looking approach to global technological competitiveness. It reflected this nation’s history of striving to do big and bold things. Nothing prevents us from continuing that tradition. Arguments that seek to paint that goal as an effort to ‘pick winners and losers’ are as nonsensical as having told President Kennedy’s NASA to abandon the space race’s goal of reaching the Moon out of fear of failure or because of it cost too much.