March 22, 1994



Chairman Hundt Addresses World Telecommunication Development  Conference
Calls for an End to Isolation Through Telecommunications

Chairman Reed Hundt said today that the purpose of the first World Telecommunication
Development Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina should be to "end the solitude that inattention
and poverty have meted out to millions of people in this world."

Hundt began by evoking the "mythical town of Macondo, a place isolated from its nation, cut off
from the world," whose story is told in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude. 
Hundt said, "We gather here...  because we know that much of the world lives in towns like
Macondo, isolated from their country, hundreds of years apart from modern technology, cut off
from communication with the world."

Hundt noted that "more than half the people on our planet have never made a telephone call.  Less
than a third have ready access to a telephone.  In the world's low income countries, there is less
than one telephone per 100 people.  Where there are no telephones, there is isolation."

He told conference participants from more than 180 countries that "Communication by telephone is
the key to economic growth and the essential condition to full participation in the modern world." 
He said that as Chairman of the FCC, he has emphasized two themes:  economic growth and access
and noted that "The objectives of economic growth and access are achievable in our country and in
every country because of breakthroughs of invention and entrepreneurship."

Hundt stressed the importance of satellite technology which he said "offers opportunities to build a
global, seamless connection among all networks.  There is no more compelling case for
governmental cooperation and parallel regulation than that presented by satellite providers.  They
seek to serve the globe, and all countries should cooperate by opening markets to their services."

He said that "in order to make the most out of modern technology," countries must adopt
appropriate regulatory regimes, and he called for adherence to the principles, outlined by Vice
President Gore on Monday: private investment; competition instead of monopolies; a flexible
regulatory framework; open access, interconnection and interoperability; and universal service.

"The issue before us is not whether technological innovation and business investment will take
place," Hundt said, "but whether the potential for economic growth through telecommunications
development can be fully realized and whether its benefits will be available to all the world's
people."

In closing, Hundt quoted the last line of "100 Years of Solitude."  "Communities 'condemned to
one hundred years of solitude [do] not have a second opportunity on earth.'  We know that millions
alive today have no second opportunity to participate in the world economy and the world
community.  By grace of human genius, we know how to give them that opportunity.  By our
efforts in this conference, let us not fail them.  Let us everywhere bring isolation to an end through
the miracle of telecommunications."