FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein reassured the rural telecom community that the commission is working to ensure their ability to compete and deliver broadband services to their markets during his address yesterday to more than 800 attendees at the NECA Expo in Las Vegas.

Adelstein also pressed the crowd at the National Exchange Carrier Association’s Fall event to weigh in on important issues currently under consideration at the FCC, such as the recently proposed “reverse auctions” concept for funding Universal Service.

He said it is the task of the FCC to help keep rural communities alive and humming by encouraging young people to stay in their communities. The only way to do that is to help them see more opportunity. And opportunity along with the ability to compete with national and international companies can be improved with broadband, he said.

“It is more critical than ever that you continue to upgrade your facilities,” Adelstein said. “Opportunities in rural America are just as great, if not greater, than anywhere else in the country.”

However, Adelstein said he is concerned with the overall broadband penetration ranking of the U.S. among countries worldwide. Despite making great strides in many parts of the country, the nation as a whole is not keeping pace.

“It’s unacceptable that the U.S. would fall to 16^th in the world [out of 180],” he said. The good news is that we edged out Slovenia. The bad news is we are trailing right behind Estonia.”

He admitted that one reason for the disparity is the density of many American markets—or rather the lack of density. “But there is no reason, with all the resources we have in this country, that we can’t find ways to ensure the stability of Universal Service and [find] other ways to make sure we have a rural infrastructure that is second to none in the world,” Adelstein said.

The commissioner addressed issues of concern such as inter-carrier compensation—in particular the Missoula Plan—Universal Service Funding, phantom traffic and the importance of having sound financial and market data in front of commissioners as they determine policy, such as NECA's recent study which showed it would cost approximately $11 billion to upgrade rural facilities to reach all un-served and underserved markets.

Adelstein called it unacceptable that when it comes to the rise in phantom traffic that rural carriers deliver but can’t bill for “that some people are gaming the system on purpose.” He said his hope is that the issue will be taken up as the commission takes up the Inter-carrier Compensation debate. However, he said that if that debate gets bogged down—as they sometimes do—the issue of phantom traffic needs to be solved, and he would hope that Chairman Martin would split the issue out so that it can be addressed.

Adelstein encouraged the audience to express their opinions on Reverse Auctions while it is still open for comment and under review by the FCC. This recently proposed process would allow phone companies of all sizes to bid on providing service in rural areas.

“It is important that you provide feedback as to whether this kind of approach would work to create the right incentives for providers like yourselves to invest in rural America and whether it is consistent with the requirements that the USF be specific, sufficient and predicable. This proposal raises a lot of questions about whether that’s the case. This is too important an issue to not get involved,” Adelstein said.

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