Wireless Wave - Spring 2008 - (Page 17)

electricity in rural Arkansas had it not been for the REA, and there’s a subsidy component to providing that service to rural America. That’s just the way it is. Wireless is an extraordinarily competitive industry, but unfortunately, the way today’s marketplace works regarding capital and infrastructure investment means that business is going to be done where the most people live. That’s just the way it is, and that’s ok. So we need to think of ways that we can help get that out to rural America and make sure that they have high-quality wireless access and also rural broadband. I’m not a big fan of a cap on USF. I’ve expressed concerns about what it would really do in the long-term. At the same time, I have co-sponsored legislation to get USF to cover rural broadband, so I just think it’s very important. I could share with you dozens of stories from my state where rural broadband access has saved a company, a little mom and pop business. It might be a sporting goods store down in Stuttgart (Arkansas), which is the hunting capital of the world. It might be up on the Little Red River, where people go trout fishing all the time, and there was a guide service that was going out of business until they started booking things online. It might be a guy in Little Rock who literally runs a business out of his bedroom in his house where all he sells is handmade knives that people in Arkansas and around the region make in their garages and their shops, and he sells them online. Those are businesses that are going strong because of broadband. That’s capital and that’s opportunity and that’s the American way. So to me, it’s important that we allow rural America to have those same opportunities that urban America has, and wireless is a huge part of that. Wave: So in your mind it’s all about equality and what’s fair? SEN PRYOR: That’s exactly right. Wireless is an equalizer because it gives people access. It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do for a living; the cell phone lets you conduct a lot of business, and it’s going to do so much more in improving everyone’s quality-of-life. Wave: I assume you have a BlackBerry. SEN PRYOR: I sure do and I use it all of the time (laughing). Wave: Can you imagine trying to conduct your business or as you mentioned earlier, or your constituents in Little Rock or Stuttgart trying to do their work today without that kind of capability? SEN PRYOR: Actually, no, I can’t. For example, my father was in the Senate, some 20 years ago before BlackBerries and email, and it just blows his mind that I can be at home and be in a dialog with my office and not ever use the telephone because I’m using some wireless email service. It’s just so different today. Of course, it’s nice to get away from that sometime, and he also wonders about the wisdom of me carrying one on my hip all the time. But it’s just the way business is conducted today and it’s how we live. It’s almost like when I was practicing law when the fax machine came into being. Suddenly clients and lawyers could fax each other, so it shortened communication time. It used to be you’d write a letter and several days later you’d get something back. But with the fax, you could get it done all in one day. Now look at how wireless has closed that gap. It’s making everything so much easier for so many different people, and it’s going to get a lot better if we can set the right polices in place that recognize the needs of consumers and industry in a sensible, balanced, and uniform way. It’s exciting to be in a position to be proactive and do something that’s going to do a lot of good for the economic prosperity of our country and for Americans everywhere. To watch a video of the Senator Pryor interview visit www.ctia.org/WOW 17 Spr2/9/08 1:22:48 PM i ng 20 0 8 364066_Walker.indd 1 http://www.walkerfirst.com http://www.ctia.org/WOW

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Wireless Wave - Spring 2008

Wireless Wave - Spring 2008 Contents A Letter from Our Chairman A Letter from Our President Pryor Approval The Promise of M-commerce Moving Targets Foreign Service Multiple Choice Legs, Regs, and Wireless Wireless News The Supplier’s Voice CTIA Welcomes New Members Index of Advertisers Roaming with….

Wireless Wave - Spring 2008

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