Byron Dorgan: “I happen to agree with that assessment. What has happened with respect to Japan and South Korea, as an example, where…”

“I happen to agree with that assessment. What has happened with respect to Japan and South Korea, as an example, where they have had this robust, aggressive development of broadband, it is a result of a couple things. They had a national will, a program, and a determination to make that happen, including loan guarantees, among other things--also, including regulation. What was the regulation? It was that their Government said incumbent providers must make their facilities available to other competitors; their dark fiber must be made available to other competitors. They created robust, aggressive competition and, therefore, a massive buildout of broadband. Good for them. But that was regulation. That was the Government saying you have to make your dark fiber available to the incumbent providers. They have approached this in different ways. Also, we in this Government, right now, have, I understand, over $2 billion of loan guarantees and loan authority in the U.S. for the buildout of broadband.”