[Senate Hearing 115-644]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 115-644
ADVANCING THE INTERNET OF THINGS
IN RURAL AMERICA
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND THE
INTERNET
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 7, 2017
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman
ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi BILL NELSON, Florida, Ranking
ROY BLUNT, Missouri MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
TED CRUZ, Texas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
JERRY MORAN, Kansas BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
DEAN HELLER, Nevada CORY BOOKER, New Jersey
JAMES INHOFE, Oklahoma TOM UDALL, New Mexico
MIKE LEE, Utah GARY PETERS, Michigan
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
CORY GARDNER, Colorado MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
TODD YOUNG, Indiana CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
Nick Rossi, Staff Director
Adrian Arnakis, Deputy Staff Director
Jason Van Beek, General Counsel
Kim Lipsky, Democratic Staff Director
Chris Day, Democratic Deputy Staff Director
Renae Black, Senior Counsel
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION, AND THE
INTERNET
ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi, BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii, Ranking
Chairman MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
ROY BLUNT, Missouri AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
TED CRUZ, Texas RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
JERRY MORAN, Kansas CORY BOOKER, New Jersey
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska TOM UDALL, New Mexico
DEAN HELLER, Nevada GARY PETERS, Michigan
JAMES INHOFE, Oklahoma TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
MIKE LEE, Utah TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
SHELLEY CAPITO, West Virginia CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada
CORY GARDNER, Colorado
TODD YOUNG, Indiana
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on November 7, 2017................................. 1
Statement of Senator Wicker...................................... 1
Letter dated November 7, 2017 to Hon. Roger Wicker and Hon.
Brian Schatz from the Competitive Carriers Association..... 53
Statement of Senator Schatz...................................... 2
Statement of Senator Fischer..................................... 31
Statement of Senator Gardner..................................... 34
Statement of Senator Moran....................................... 36
Statement of Senator Klobuchar................................... 38
Statement of Senator Hassan...................................... 40
Statement of Senator Cortez Masto................................ 42
Statement of Senator Cantwell.................................... 43
Statement of Senator Udall....................................... 45
Statement of Senator Duckworth................................... 46
Statement of Senator Markey...................................... 49
Witnesses
Michael P. Adcock, FACHE, Executive Director, Center for
Telehealth, University of Mississippi Medical Center........... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 5
David L. Armitage, CEO/Founder, Cartasite........................ 7
Prepared statement........................................... 9
Timothy Hassinger, President and CEO, Lindsay Corporation........ 11
Prepared statement........................................... 13
Michael Terzich, Chief Administrative Officer, Zebra Technologies 14
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Angela Siefer, Executive Director, National Digital Inclusion
Alliance....................................................... 19
Prepared statement........................................... 20
Appendix
Hon. Bill Nelson, U.S. Senator from Florida, prepared statement.. 57
Response to written question submitted by Hon. Tom Udall to
Michael Terzich................................................ 57
ADVANCING THE INTERNET OF THINGS
IN RURAL AMERICA
----------
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2017
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology,
Innovation, and the Internet,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in
room SR-253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Roger Wicker,
Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Wicker [presiding], Blunt, Fischer,
Moran, Capito, Gardner, Schatz, Cantwell, Klobuchar,
Blumenthal, Markey, Udall, Duckworth, Hassan, and Cortez Masto.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER F. WICKER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSISSIPPI
Senator Wicker. Good morning. Thank you all for being here.
Today, the Subcommittee meets to examine the Internet of
Things. Our discussion will focus on how to advance the
availability and accessibility of these technologies in rural
America. I'm glad to convene this hearing with my good friend
and colleague, Ranking Member Schatz.
The Internet of Things encompasses a diverse market of
Internet-connected devices, machines, and physical objects.
Over the past few years, we've seen an increasing number of
physical objects like refrigerators and washing machines take
on smarter capabilities through Internet-connected sensors.
Internet connectivity enables these things to collect data and
share actionable insights to consumers and businesses alike.
This information allows the user to be more productive,
efficient, and cost effective. It's changing our economy.
Beyond generating simple conveniences, IoT technologies are
taking on more significant and vital roles in our lives. They
are making us safer, improving our health, and opening up
opportunities for economic advancement in both urban and rural
communities. In our rural communities, in particular, IoT
technologies, such as telemedicine, are making a big impact.
In my home state, the University of Mississippi Medical
Center, which is represented here today, is providing
lifesaving healthcare services through innovative telehealth
applications. Physicians are remotely monitoring and diagnosing
patients. This remote access can offer specialty care that is
not readily available in many rural communities.
Our first responders are also using telemedicine to
communicate and provide treatment in the field. For example,
first responders can consult with emergency personnel in
hospitals through video applications. This is accelerating the
delivery of care and saving lives.
Underlying these IoT technologies and their economic and
societal benefits are reliable broadband connections and mobile
broadband services. Internet connectivity is absolutely
essential to the adoption of these technologies. As IoT
technologies become smarter and increasingly sophisticated,
they will require seamless and reliable Internet connectivity
to achieve the promised health, safety, and economic benefits.
To that end, it is vitally important that the Federal
Communications Commission take steps to ensure that the
Universal Service Fund program provides adequate and
predictable support to help preserve and expand broadband in
rural and underserved communities. It's also important for the
Commission to collect accurate and reliable coverage data for
programs, like Phase II of the Mobility Fund, before making new
funding decisions. We should ensure the delivery of essential
communication services to communities in need first.
In addition to accelerating the deployment of broadband in
our rural areas, cybersecurity will be key to advancing the
economic success of the Internet of Things market. Large scale
data breaches have understandably shaken consumers' confidence
and trust. Fortified security measures will help strengthen the
United States leadership role and competitiveness in the IoT
market around the world. The Internet of Things marks an
exciting space for digital innovation in this country. There is
significant economic potential associated with these
technological developments.
Today, I look forward to learning from our witnesses about
how the IoT is bringing vital services to rural America and
creating opportunities for investment, innovation, and job
creation. I welcome the testimony of the witnesses here today
and thank them for their testimony.
At this point, I will recognize my colleague, the Ranking
Member of this Subcommittee, Senator Schatz.
STATEMENT OF HON. BRIAN SCHATZ,
U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII
Senator Schatz. Thank you very much, Chairman Wicker.
IoT brings great opportunity for everyone, regardless of
their zip code. For instance, in Hawaii, we've already seen IoT
technologies improve access to healthcare in rural communities.
A few months ago, I visited the Island of Lanai and met the
staff at the Lanai Community Health Center, who told me that
they've been using telehealth in their practice for a few years
now. Through IoT technologies, they're helping patients to
manage diabetes remotely and connecting patients with
specialists on Oahu.
This has resulted in higher quality care with improved
diagnoses and medication management and also substantial
savings in travel costs. We should be making it easier for
organizations like the Lanai Community Health Center to cut
costs and improve care with these technologies. It is my hope
that our Federal laws will enable patients and providers in
every state to use telehealth.
In this effort, I introduced the Connect for Health Act
with Chairman Wicker, Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson,
and others on this committee, including Senators Capito,
Klobuchar, and Blunt. This bill lifts outdated restrictions on
originating sites and geographic requirements and does so in
ways that can better control costs for Medicare. Four
provisions from the Connect for Health Act were included in the
Chronic Care Act which passed the Senate and is being
considered by the House.
Telehealth is just one example of how rural communities
across America can benefit from IoT. But this can only happen
if they have the right infrastructure and resources. Right now,
not everybody is able to take advantage of IoT for many
reasons, but I'll list just three.
First, there is a broadband gap. IoT in rural areas cannot
fully take off without broadband connectivity. Some telehealth
applications can succeed without full broadband access, and we
should push ahead with those, but there are others the require
the broadband. Unfortunately, one in four rural residences
still does not have access to 25 megabits per second broadband.
To close this gap, we need more accurate information to
start. Right now, there are a number of issues with the way the
FCC collects information on where broadband is and is not
available. This needs to change. Senator Manchin's Rural
Wireless Access Act takes a step in the right direction by
asking the FCC to establish a consistent methodology for data
collection. We need to know where the divide is, so we are
taking steps to close it.
Second, there is the cost of the physical infrastructure.
Congress has a role to play in getting that infrastructure
deployed. This can include public-private partnerships and tax
credits. But it will take direct spending to get broadband
built out where the private sector won't.
Third, there is a gap in adoption. Naturally, much of our
focus is on expanding availability, but we cannot lose sight of
gaps in actual adoption of broadband. There are a number of
reasons for the lack of adoption, including pricing, digital
literacy, and other issues. Rural consumers' adoption of
broadband will be essential for realizing the full potential of
IoT.
After this hearing, I look forward to working with Chairman
Wicker and others on the Committee on some direct steps that
can be made, removing barriers for broadband deployment and
promoting innovations in unlicensed spectrum.
Thank you again, Chairman Wicker, for holding this hearing.
Senator Wicker. Thank you.
Senator Schatz has a commitment at another committee, and
we hope that you can be back shortly. We certainly appreciate
the fact that you're spread mighty thin this morning.
Our witnesses today are Mr. Michael Adcock, Executive
Director, Telehealth Center, at the University of Mississippi
Medical Center; Mr. David Armitage, Founder and CEO of
Cartasite; Mr. Timothy Hassinger, President and CEO of Lindsay
Corporation; Mr. Michael Terzich, Chief Administrative Officer
of Zebra Technologies; and Ms. Angela Siefer, Director,
National Digital Inclusion Alliance. We are thrilled to have
all of these witnesses here.
Mr. Adcock, you're recognized first for a summary of your
testimony for approximately 5 minutes. Welcome.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL P. ADCOCK, FACHE,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR TELEHEALTH,
UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER
Mr. Adcock. Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Schatz, and
members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
appear here today. I am Michael Adcock, Executive Director for
the Center for Telehealth at the University of Mississippi
Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. I am honored to talk
with you this morning about telehealth and the ways that its
power can be harnessed to address healthcare needs across
America.
Telehealth has been a part of the healthcare landscape in
Mississippi for over 14 years, beginning with an aggressive
program to address mortality in rural emergency departments.
Today, the UMMC Center for Telehealth delivers more than 30
medical specialties across 200 sites of service across the
state, including rural clinics, schools, prisons, and
corporations. This network allows us to deliver world class
care in 68 of Mississippi's 82 counties and provide access for
patients who might otherwise go untreated.
Over the last decade, we have conducted over 500,000
patient encounters through telehealth. Maximizing our
utilization of healthcare resources through the use of
technology is the only way we can reach all of the
Mississippians who need lifesaving healthcare and would not be
available in local communities and homes without broadband
connectivity.
One program that has been very impactful for our patients
is remote patient monitoring, which manages chronic disease in
patients' homes. Our initial pilot with diabetes in the
Mississippi Delta was a public-private partnership between
critical access hospital North Sunflower Medical Center,
telecommunications provider C Spire, technology partner Care
Innovations, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, the Office
of the Governor of Mississippi, and the University of
Mississippi Medical Center.
The results of the study showed a marked decrease in blood
glucose, early recognition of diabetes-related eye disease,
reduced travel to see specialists, and no diabetes-related
hospitalizations or emergency room visits among our patients.
This pilot demonstrated impressive savings, and the Mississippi
Division of Medicaid extrapolated the financial data to show
potential savings of over $180 million per year if 20 percent
of the diabetics on the Mississippi Medicaid program
participated. This pilot demonstrated how educating patients
about their disease and empowering them to care for themselves
is extremely beneficial and is best done in their home.
Initially, wired broadband in the home was thought to be
the easiest way to provide the connectivity needed. But because
only one third of Mississippians have access to residential
fixed broadband, this is not always a reliable option. To
provide the most reliable connectivity, we partnered with C
Spire, a regional telecommunications company, to connect our
patients via mobile broadband. This worked during the pilot
program and continues to be our solution for connecting
patients to the resources they need for remote patient
monitoring. However, as telehealth grows and additional
services are available, a more reliable fixed solution will be
necessary.
While our center continues to find ways to connect patients
to the care they need, too many Americans still lack access to
broadband. Ten percent of all Americans and 39 percent of rural
Americans lack access to adequate service. In Mississippi, the
digital divide is even more pronounced. In our state, only 34
percent of Mississippians have access to residential fixed
broadband connections.
Two-thirds of Mississippi counties are more than a 40-
minute drive from specialty care. In order to deliver care in
an efficient manner across our state, expansion of reliable and
available broadband is essential. The Center for Telehealth has
worked closely with local and national telecommunications
providers to expand band width in sites across Mississippi.
These partnerships, along with investments from FCC's Universal
Service Fund program, have made broadband more available and
more affordable in many regions of our state.
More can and should be done. Legislation introduced by
Chairman Wicker would improve the validity and reliability of
wireless coverage and expand broadband to rural areas and
communities that are truly in need. The Rural Wireless Act and
SPEED Act of 2017 will help close the digital divide
experienced by many, especially in rural and remote geographic
areas where disease burden is greatest. It will do this by
eliminating delays that often raise cost and slow the
deployment of broadband to rural areas. It will also fast-track
the deployment of next-generation broadband that is critical to
advancing innovative technologies.
The benefits of telehealth are not available to patients
without access to high-speed Internet. As technology and
healthcare services expand to meet patients where they live,
broadband coverage must improve to make this care accessible.
Thank you for taking the time to focus on how access to
broadband in rural areas can help to close the digital divide,
bring healthcare resources to remote communities, and create a
connectedness that transcends location. Without broadband,
healthcare cannot operate outside of America's hospitals and
clinics and cannot harness the power of technology to better
treat our patients.
Thank you for inviting me to testify today and for your
time and attention to this very important matter.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Adcock follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michael P. Adcock, FACHE, Executive Director,
Center for Telehealth, University of Mississippi Medical Center
Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Schatz, and Members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I
am Michael Adcock, Executive Director for the Center for Telehealth at
the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) in Jackson,
Mississippi. I am honored to talk to you this morning about telehealth
and the ways that its power can be harnessed to address healthcare
needs across America.
Mississippi has significant healthcare challenges, leading the
Nation in heart disease, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
These and other chronic conditions require consistent, quality care--a
task that is made harder by the rural nature of our state. In order to
improve access to care and give Mississippians a better quality of
life, it is clear that we need something more than traditional, clinic
and hospital-based services.
Telehealth has been a part of the healthcare landscape in
Mississippi for over 14 years, beginning with an aggressive program to
address mortality in rural emergency departments. In 2003, three rural
sites were chosen to participate in a program that would allow UMMC
board certified emergency medicine physicians to interact with and care
for patients in small, rural emergency rooms via a live, audio-video
connection. The TelEmergency program has grown to serve more than 20
hospitals and continues to produce outcomes on par with that of our
Level 1 trauma center.
Today, the UMMC Center for Telehealth delivers more than 30 medical
specialties in over 200 sites across the state including rural clinics,
schools, prisons and corporations. The depth and breadth of this
network allows us to deliver world-class care in 68 of our state's 82
counties and provide access for patients who might otherwise go
untreated. Over the last decade, we have conducted over 500,000 patient
encounters through telehealth. Maximizing our utilization of healthcare
resources through the use of technology is the only way we can reach
all of the Mississippians who need lifesaving health care. These world
class services would not be available in local communities and homes
without broadband connectivity.
One program that has been very impactful for our patients is remote
patient monitoring (RPM), which manages chronic disease in a patient's
home. RPM is designed to educate, engage and empower patients so that
they can learn to take care of themselves. Our initial pilot with
diabetics in the Mississippi Delta was a public/private partnership
between critical access hospital North Sunflower Medical Center,
telecommunications provider C Spire, technology partner Care
Innovations, the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, Office of the
Governor of Mississippi and UMMC. The purpose of the pilot was to test
the effectiveness of remote patient monitoring using technology in a
rural, underserved area. The results of the study showed a marked
decrease in blood glucose, early recognition of diabetes-related eye
disease, reduced travel to see specialists and no diabetes-related
hospitalizations or emergency room visits among our patients. This
pilot demonstrated a savings of over $300,000 in the first 100 patients
over six months. The Mississippi Division of Medicaid extrapolated this
data to show potential savings of over $180 million per year if 20
percent of the diabetics on Mississippi Medicaid participated in this
program. The benefits were not only financial and health related. Many
of the patients who participated in this program did not have Internet
connectivity in their homes and some had never accessed the internet.
This program opened up a whole new world to them and has sparked their
interest in staying connected.
The pilot demonstrated how educating patients about their disease
and empowering them to care for themselves is extremely beneficial and
is best done in their home. Bringing this technology into the home
requires access to reliable broadband coverage. Initially, wired
broadband in the home was thought to be the easiest way to provide the
connectivity needed, but because only one third of Mississippians have
access to residential fixed broadband, this is not always a reliable
option. To provide the most reliable connectivity, we partnered with C
Spire, a regional telecommunications company, to connect to our
patients via mobile broadband. This worked during the pilot program and
continues to be our go to solution for connecting patients to the
resources they need for remote patient monitoring. However, as
telehealth grows and additional services are available in the home, a
more reliable, fixed solution will be necessary.
Given the success of the pilot, UMMC Center for Telehealth has
expanded remote patient monitoring to include adult and pediatric
diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypertension, bone marrow
transplant and kidney transplant patients. Working closely with a
patient's primary care provider, we continue to grow this program both
in terms of volume and number of diseases that can be managed. It gives
patients the knowledge and tools they need to improve their health and
manage their chronic disease.
While our Center continues to find ways to connect patients to the
care they need, too many Americans still lack access to broadband,
particularly the 23 million Americans living in rural areas. Ten
percent of all Americans (34 million people) and 39 percent of rural
Americans lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps service. FCC data shows that as
many as one in three households do not subscribe to Internet service.
In Mississippi the digital divide is even more pronounced. In our
state, only 34 percent of Mississippians have access to residential
fixed broadband connections, with only three counties showing greater
than 60 percent residential broadband access.
Mississippi spans 48,000 square miles, two thirds of our counties
are more than a 40 minute drive from specialty care. When people live
that far from specialty care, at best, care is delayed. At worst, care
is never received. Telehealth allows us to deliver care in areas where
it would not normally be available. In order to deliver care in an
efficient manner across our state, expansion of reliable and available
broadband is essential. The Center for Telehealth has worked closely
with local and national telecommunications providers to expand
bandwidth in sites across Mississippi. These partnerships, along with
investment from the FCC's Universal Service Fund program, have made
broadband more available and affordable in many regions. We were
honored to have FCC Commissioner Clyburn in our state multiple times to
see firsthand the importance of broadband access to improving health
outcomes throughout Mississippi.
More can and should be done. Legislation authored by Chairman
Wicker would improve the validity and reliability of wireless coverage
and expand broadband to rural areas and communities that are truly in
need. S. 1621, the Rural Wireless Act, will help close the digital
divide experienced by many, especially in rural and remote geographic
areas, where disease burden is greatest.
We also support S. 1988, the Streamlining Permitting to Enable
Efficient Deployment of Broadband Infrastructure Act of 2017 (SPEED
Act). This bill will eliminate delays that often raise costs and slow
the deployment of broadband to rural areas. It will also fast-track the
deployment of next generation broadband that is critical to advancing
innovative technologies in telemedicine.
The benefits of telehealth are not available to patients without
access to high speed Internet across America. As technology and
healthcare services expand to meet patients where they live, broadband
coverage must improve to make this care accessible.
Thank you for taking the time to focus on how access to broadband
in rural areas can help to close the digital divide, bring health care
resources to remote communities and create a connectedness that
transcends location. Without broadband, health care cannot operate
outside of America's hospitals and clinics and cannot harness the power
of technology to better treat our patients. Thank you for inviting me
to testify today and for your time and attention to this very important
matter.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Mr. Adcock.
Mr. Armitage.
STATEMENT OF DAVID L. ARMITAGE, CEO/FOUNDER, CARTASITE
Mr. Armitage. Good morning, Chairman Wicker, members of the
Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me in today. I am David
Armitage, Chief Executive Officer of Cartasite. I founded the
company in 2004 to bring real-time operational intelligence to
the oil and gas industry.
During the fall of 2014, a response to precipitous declines
in commodity prices, the oil and gas industry moved from
``drill baby drill'' to ``tighten the belt; the ride is getting
rough.'' The domestic oil and gas industry is resilient and
resourceful. In the past 20 years, horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracturing technologies have opened up resources in
the U.S. that have us on a path to energy self-sufficiency.
That reality would have seemed like a fantasy two decades ago.
The implications for the U.S. economy and geopolitics are
profound. The U.S. is on track to exceed the country's all time
high of 10 million barrels a day reached in November 1970.
Despite all of the success the industry has realized in
reducing costs to find the next barrel of oil, we are still a
relatively high-cost producer. The industrial Internet of
Things is not hype or Silicon Valley's latest buzz word. IoT is
helping to streamline business process, enhance safety, reduce
environmental impact, and improve utilization of critical
assets. Every aspect of energy production is being impacted by
real-time remote monitoring, predictive analytics, cloud
computing, smart sensors, advanced automation, and remote
monitoring systems are pushing connectivity into remote areas
to the benefit of rural communities.
But there is no free lunch. The margin squeeze of the past
3 years has been painful. Tens of thousands of workers have
lost their jobs. The budgets of rural communities have been
slashed, and many firms have been forced into bankruptcy. We
have seen an upstream oil and gas workforce decline by over 20
percent.
The industry's rapid response to lower commodity prices
provides an interesting Petri dish to study the implications,
both good and bad, of the industrial Internet of Things on our
society. In the past 3 years, the number of barrels produced
per worker has increased by over 27 percent. We can find no
other examples in recent history where an industry of such
scale has managed such a dramatic increase in worker
productivity. There may be several factors contributing to this
remarkable increase, but there can be no question that the
industry's embrace of industrial Internet of Things has played
a significant role.
Industrial IoT utilizes remote sensors to deliver data to
cloud servers, where algorithms sift through the telemetry to
identify actionable insights that streamline business process.
The connectivity implicit in this architecture is bringing
wireless high-speed networks to remote areas of our country
where population densities would otherwise not provide
sufficient economic incentive for cellular and broadband
carriers.
At Cartasite, we utilize real-time vehicle monitoring
technology to help oil field workers get home safely to their
families every night. Large corporations like Anadarko
Petroleum, Encana, and ConocoPhillips leverage this IoT data to
optimize deployment of field workers, resulting in reductions
in crashes, traffic, fuel consumption, and emissions. These
industry fleets traverse some of the nation's most remote areas
and provide us with interesting insights.
We see firsthand the negative impact on productivity and
safety that comes from a lack of cellular coverage, off the
highway and off the major road networks. These companies have
worked closely with cellular carriers to enhance coverage, in
some cases even funding the deployment of new cell towers. It's
that critical to their business. While well site and pipeline
monitoring technology has been available for over 30 years,
penetration remains surprisingly low in some areas. The cost
and complexity of legacy systems has placed the technology
beyond the reach of many operators. This is changing quickly.
Smartphones have accelerated the commoditization of
sensors, GPS processors, and cellular modems. The industrial
IoT is riding this wave and bringing to market simple tags with
exotic capabilities. At Cartasite, we have a system in our labs
which is able to detect unintended methane leaks from remote
well sites and report on these fugitive gas emissions over the
cellular network. This data feeds into worldVIEW, a real-time
geospatial dash board that companies can use to dispatch
inspection and repair crews.
Methane is a significant greenhouse gas, some 80 times
worse than CO2 for our planet. The industry has
worked closely with the EPA to reduce these unintended fugitive
emissions, and our Project Canary is an outstanding example of
the industrial IoT technology which will help lessen the
environmental impact of oil field operations.
The digital oil field is ushering in a new era of
efficient, safer, and more cost-effective field operations. The
industry is rapidly moving from management by schedule to
management by exception, driven by the real-time insight
garnered from these remote monitoring technologies. The oil and
gas industry is embracing these technologies to ensure the
safety of their workers, the security of critical assets, and
the economic viability of the industry.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Armitage follows:]
Prepared Statement of David L. Armitage, CEO/Founder, Cartasite
During the fall of 2014, in response to precipitous declines in
commodity prices, the oil and gas industry moved from drill baby drill
to tighten the belts, the ride's gettin' rough.
The domestic oil and gas industry is resilient and resourceful. In
the past 20 years, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing
technologies opened up re-sources in the U.S. that have us on a path to
energy self-sufficiency. The U.S. is on track to exceed the country's
all time high of 10 MMbbl/day reached in November of 1970. That reality
would have seemed like a fantasy two decades ago. The implications for
the U.S. economy and geopolitics are profound.
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Despite all the success the industry has realized in reducing the
costs to find the next barrel of oil, we are still a relatively high
cost producer. The Industrial Internet of Things is not hype or Silicon
Valley's latest buzzword. IoT is helping to streamline business
process, enhance safety, reduce environmental impact, and improve
utilization of critical assets. Every aspect of energy production is
being impacted by realtime remote monitoring, predictive analytics,
Cloud computing, smart sensors, and machine learning. Advanced
automation and remote monitoring systems are pushing connectivity into
remote areas, to the benefit of rural communities. But there is no free
lunch.
The margin squeeze of the past three years has been painful. Tens
of thou-sands of workers have lost their jobs, the budgets of rural
communities have been slashed, and many firms have been forced into
bankruptcy. We have seen the upstream oil and gas industry workforce
decline over 20 percent.
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The industry's rapid response to lower commodity prices provides an
interesting petri dish to study the implications, both good and bad, of
the Internet of Things on our society. In the past three years the
number of barrels produced per worker has increased by over 27 percent.
We can find no other examples in recent history where an industry of
such scale has managed such a dramatic increase in worker productivity.
There may be several factors contributing to this remarkable increase,
but there can be no question that the industry's embrace of Industrial
IoT has played a significant role.
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Industrial IoT utilizes remote sensors to deliver data to the Cloud
servers where algorithms sift through the telemetry to identify
actionable insights that stream-line business response. The
connectivity implicit in this architecture is bringing wireless, high
speed networks to remote areas of our country where population
densities would otherwise not provide sufficient economic incentive for
cellular and broadband carriers. At Cartasite, we utilize realtime
vehicle monitoring technology to help oil field workers get home safely
to their families every night. Large corporations like Anadarko
Petroleum, Encana, and ConocoPhillips leverage this IoT data to
optimize deployment of field workers, resulting in reductions in
crashes, traffic, fuel consumption, and emissions. These industry
fleets traverse some of the Nation's most remote areas and provide us
with some interesting insights. We see first hand the negative impact
on productivity and safety that come from a lack of cellular coverage
off of the highway and major road networks. These companies have worked
closely with the cellular carriers to enhance coverage, in some cases
even funding the deployment of new cell towers.
Remote worker safety is a critical issue for many industries,
including oil and gas, utilities, forestry, agriculture, and rail. The
lack of cellular coverage has led industry to seek out alternative
systems, including private radio networks and satellite beacons. As
coverage is enhanced we can anticipate more effective integration with
state and Federal emergency response infrastructure.
While wellsite and pipeline monitoring technology has been
available for over thirty years, penetration remains surprisingly low
in many areas. The cost and complexity of legacy systems has placed the
technology beyond the reach of many operators. This is changing
quickly. Smartphones have accelerated the commoditization of sensors,
GPS processors, and cellular modems. Industrial IoT is riding this wave
and bringing to market simple tags with exotic capabilities. At
Cartasite, we have a system in our labs which is able to detect
unintended methane leaks from remote wellsites and report on these
`fugitive' gas emissions over the cellular network. This data feeds
into worldVIEW, a realtime geospatial dashboard that companies can use
to dispatch inspection and repair crews. Methane is a significant
greenhouse gas, some 80 times worse than CO2 for our planet.
The industry has worked closely with the EPA to reduce these unintended
fugitive emissions and our Project Canary is an outstanding example of
an Industrial IoT technology which will help lessen the environmental
impact of oil field operations.
The Digital Oilfield is ushering a new era of highly efficient,
safer, and more cost-effective field operations. The industry is
rapidly moving from `management by schedule' to `management by
exception' driven by the realtime insights garnered from remote
monitoring technologies. The oil and gas industry is embracing these
technologies to ensure the safety of their workers, the security of
critical assets, and the economic viability of the industry.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Mr. Armitage.
Mr. Hassinger, have I pronounced your name correctly?
Mr. Hassinger. Yes, you have.
Senator Wicker. We're glad to have you with us.
Mr. Hassinger. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY HASSINGER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LINDSAY
CORPORATION
Mr. Hassinger. Good morning, Senators. I'd like to thank
Subcommittee Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Schatz, Senator
Deb Fischer, and all the members of the Subcommittee for this
opportunity to testify in today's hearing.
My name is Tim Hassinger. I'm the President and Chief
Executive Officer of Nebraska-based Lindsay Corporation, a
leading manufacturer of center pivot and lateral move
agricultural irrigation systems. For more than 50 years,
Lindsay Corporation has been at the forefront of research and
development of products and services designed to meet the
world's rapidly growing agriculture and transportation needs.
It's an honor and privilege to be here today representing my
company and the agricultural industry. I'd like to thank
Senator Fischer for inviting me to speak about the important
role broadband access plays in the agricultural industry in
operations of all sizes and in all regions of the country.
As you might know, it's estimated that by 2050, the global
demand for food will be 60 percent higher than it is today. To
meet this daunting challenge, it's imperative that we develop
and deploy technologies that will help growers produce more
with less while preserving water and other natural resources.
Broadband access is the key to unlocking the power of these
technologies, and, respectfully, Senators, I ask the question:
Would you be able to do your job without access to the
Internet? Probably not, and neither can farmers.
So like all business owners, farmers need to be online. The
Internet fuels the innovative advanced technology that will
help them meet the food, fuel, and fiber needs of the rapidly
growing global population. With the touch of a button or swipe
of a finger, farmers who have broadband access can receive
commodity price information, monitor and respond to challenging
weather conditions, get real-time data on soil moisture
conditions, store and analyze data to increase sustainability
and productivity.
They can also take advantage of the many new technologies
now available from Lindsay Corporation and other American
manufacturers. Among other things, these innovations enable
remote data collection, transfer and analysis from connected
devices like soil moisture sensors, weather stations, and
cloud-based support tools. Farmers are using this information
to streamline their operations and maximize efficiency and
increase productivity.
We work with farmers every day, so we know the power that
comes with the ability to leverage big data. We now offer
technology that helps farmers decide precisely when, where, and
how input to maximize yields while reducing overwatering, and
then, ultimately, input costs and nutrient losses. In recently
conducted field studies, our researchers found that remote
telemetry streamlined growing operations in several key ways,
including 3 percent increase in corn yield, a 17 percent
reduction in water usage, $10 per acre reduction in energy
costs, 75 percent reduction in time spent going back and forth
in the fields.
This combination of yield enhancement and resource savings
can increase American farmers' profits by an average of $40 per
acre, profits that can be re-invested in their operation and in
their local economy. For farmers across the country, these
technologies are no longer luxuries. Rather, they're critical
tools needed to increase the overall operational efficiency and
productivity needed to compete in the global marketplace.
However, farmers can only employ these connected tools if they
have reliable, high-speed Internet access, and for an estimated
39 percent of the rural population, it's simply not available.
While cities and municipalities typically have access to
several high-speed Internet service providers, that access
often ends at the county line. Those living in rural
communities depend on radio network, satellite, or cell
service, all of which typically operate at lower speeds,
limiting connectivity. It's a competitive world, and many
people living in rural communities feel like they're being left
behind, that they're not operating on a level playing field. In
order for those communities and our country to thrive and
compete in the global marketplace, we must bridge that digital
divide.
With rural broadband access, business owners will have
access to new markets and employees, healthcare workers will be
able to access advanced equipment, students will be afforded
new educational opportunities, and farmers will be able to take
advantage of emerging technologies that will help them increase
yields while conserving water and other natural resources.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hassinger follows:]
Prepared Statement of Timothy Hassinger, President and CEO,
Lindsay Corporation
Good morning Senators. I would like to thank Subcommittee Chairman
Wicker, Ranking Member Schatz, Senator Deb Fischer and all of the
members of the subcommittee for this opportunity to testify at today's
hearing.
My name is Tim Hassinger. I am the president and chief executive
officer of Nebraska-based Lindsay Corporation--a leading manufacturer
of center pivot and lateral move agricultural irrigation systems. For
more than 50 years, Lindsay Corporation has been at the forefront of
research and the development of products and services designed to meet
the world's rapidly growing agriculture and transportation needs.
It's an honor and a privilege to be here today representing my
company and the agriculture industry. I would like to thank Senator
Fischer for inviting me to speak about the important role broadband
access plays in the agriculture industry--on operations of all sizes in
all regions of the country.
As you may know, it's estimated that by 2050, the global demand for
food will be 60 percent higher than it is today. To meet this daunting
challenge, it's imperative that we develop and deploy technologies that
will help growers produce more with less, while preserving water and
other natural resources.
Broadband access is the key to unlocking the power of those
technologies. Respectfully, Senators--could you do your job without
access to the Internet? Probably not--and neither can our Nation's
farmers.
Like all business owners, farmers need to be online. The Internet
fuels the innovative, advanced technology that will help them meet the
food, fuel and fiber needs of the rapidly growing global population.
With the touch of a button or swipe of a finger, farmers who have
broadband access can:
Receive commodity price information
Monitor and respond to changing weather conditions
Use GPS for planting and irrigation management
Get real time data on soil and moisture conditions
Connect with other farmers and agriculture experts, and
Store and analyze data to increase sustainability and
productivity
They can also take advantage of a myriad of new technologies now
available from Lindsay Corporation and other American manufacturers.
Among other things, these innovations enable remote data collection,
transfer and analysis from connected devices like soil moisture
sensors, weather stations and cloud-based support tools. Farmers are
using this information to streamline their operations, maximize
efficiency and increase productivity.
We work with farmers every day, so we know the power that comes
with the ability to leverage big data. We now offer technology that
helps farmers decide precisely when, where and how much to irrigate--
maximizing yields while reducing overwatering and related input costs
and nutrient losses.
In recently conducted field studies, our researchers found that
remote telemetry streamlined growing operations in several key ways,
including:
3 percent increase in corn yield (driving profit of $25 per
acre)
17 percent reduction in water usage (saving more than 9.25
million gallons on a 130 acre field)
$10/acre reduction in energy costs
75 percent reduction in time spent going back and forth to
the fields (another $5/acre saved)
This combination of yield enhancement and resource savings can
increase American farmers' profits by an average of $40 per acre--
profits that can be reinvested in their operation and in their local
economy.
For farmers across the country, these technologies are no longer
luxuries. Rather, they are critical tools needed to increase the
overall operational efficiency and productivity needed to complete in
the global marketplace.
However, farmers can only employ these connected tools if they have
reliable, high-speed Internet access--and, for an estimated 39 percent
of the rural population (23.4 million Americans), it's simply not
available.
While cities and municipalities typically have access to several
high-speed Internet service providers, that access often ends at the
county line. Those living in rural communities depend on radio
networks, satellite or cell service--all of which typically operate at
lower speeds, limiting connectivity.
It's a competitive world, and many people living in rural
communities feel like they're being left behind--that they're not
operating on a level playing field.
In order for those communities and our country to thrive and
compete in the global marketplace, we must bridge that digital divide.
With rural broadband access, business owners will have access to
new markets and employees; health care workers will be able access
advanced equipment; students will be afforded new educational
opportunities; and farmers will be able to take advantage of emerging
technologies that will help them increase yields while conserving water
and other natural resources.
Senator Wicker. Thank you very much.
Mr. Terzich.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL TERZICH, CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER,
ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES
Mr. Terzich. Thank you, Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member
Schatz, and members of the Subcommittee, for the opportunity to
testify before you today.
While many Americans may not recognize Zebra by name, they
come into contact with our solutions every day. For example,
the bar code labels that are prominently featured on airline
bag tags, express delivery packages, and pharmaceutical
prescription bottles are often generated by Zebra bar code
label printers and tracked and managed by Zebra scanners and
mobile computers.
We are also global leaders in bringing enterprise Internet
of Things, solutions to business-to-business and business-to-
government markets. With revenues of approximately $3.6 billion
and 7,000 employees in more than 40 countries, Zebra is a
trusted business partner with more than 95 percent of all
Fortune 500 companies. We work with companies all across
America, including many in rural communities.
Zebra leads the growing category known as Enterprise Asset
Intelligence, EAI, which describes the ability of businesses to
track critical assets within their operation and know exactly
what they are, where they are, and their condition so they can
make smarter, faster decisions that improve their bottom line.
Zebra's customers recognize that people, asset, and devices--
especially mobile devices--are becoming increasingly connected
and that this trend is advancing at an exponential rate. A few
key facts: By 2020, there will be 1.75 billion global mobile
workers, accounting for 42 percent of the global workforce. By
2020, there will be 21 billion connected devices in a global
IoT.
As a result, Zebra is working with companies across the
U.S. to provide solutions that yield real-time visibility into
their process, assets, people so that faster and more informed
decisions can be made. Businesses, including those in rural
America, are recognizing the transformational role of IoT
solutions. These companies represent many sectors and deploy
these solutions to address a variety of strategic and
operational challenges.
The following are some industry sector examples being put
to use in companies across rural America. In the manufacturing
sector, companies are adopting IoT solutions in the smart
factory which are providing actionable visibility to the entire
operation as well as to vendors who can help manage the supply
chain.
Whirlpool Corporation wanted to optimize mobile device
management at its distribution centers. They needed a
centralized management system to track device health,
productivity, and ensure proper deployment. To solve these
issues, Whirlpool began using Zebra mobile computers and
vehicle mounted computers and Zebra's operational visibility
service or OVS. OVS helps right-size equipment and understand
site-by-site needs.
For the retail industry, when it comes to the Internet of
Things, stores are paying attention. Recent research indicates
70 percent of retail decisionmakers are ready to make changes
required to adopt IoT, and while 21 percent have implemented
IoT, another 27 percent are planning to deploy within a year.
The Bon-Ton Stores are a prime example of how retailers are
using Zebra's IoT solutions to improve the in-store customer
experience. Today, associates in more than 180 Bon-Ton retail
department stores use Zebra's RFID handheld readers on a daily
basis to streamline the display compliance process. Store
audits revealed that with a previously used manual system, up
to 20 percent of merchandise in certain categories might be
missing from the sales floor during a given week.
The RFID inventory system provides Bon-Ton with a deeper
visibility into what merchandise is available at all times. It
dramatically increases inventory management efficiencies by
allowing store associates to scan and tag new merchandise as it
first arrives in the store.
For companies in rural America to successfully utilize
these B-to-B IoT solutions, there is one universal and vital
resource. They must have unfettered access to high-quality,
high-speed broadband, both wireless and wireline. Without
investment in broadband infrastructure in rural communities,
companies, healthcare providers, and consumers will be left
behind. Spectrum is the lifeblood of IoT, and that is no
different for business IoT solutions.
We applaud the work of this Subcommittee to examine the
needs of companies in rural America, to ensure they reap the
full benefits of IoT. We support infrastructure legislation
that promotes the deployment of mobile broadband networks, as
well as directs the NTIA and FCC to allocate more commercial
licensed and unlicensed spectrum in a technology neutral way.
Additionally, we urge Congress to advance policies that
increase broadband investment and deployment in rural America.
Zebra also supports coordination among government agencies
to discourage overlapping government regulation of the Internet
of Things which could impede innovation. We congratulate the
Committee for your work to pass the DIGIT Act to help ensure
the industry can continue to roll out new technologies to
improve the lives of American workers.
In conclusion, IoT presents a transformative opportunity
for enterprise of all types and sizes all over the United
States. The benefits of B-to-B IoT solutions are allowing
companies to work smarter, enhance productivity, create jobs,
and improve the overall economy. At Zebra, we are committed to
bringing IoT solutions to companies to help them work better
and smarter, giving them a performance edge.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our story.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Terzich follows:]
Prepared Statement of Michael Terzich, Chief Administrative Officer,
Zebra Technologies
Thank you, Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Schatz and members of
the Subcommittee, for the opportunity to testify before you today. My
name is Michael Terzich and I am the Chief Administrative Officer for
Zebra Technologies. Zebra Technologies Corporation (``Zebra'') is a
global leader in bringing enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) solutions
to Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Government (B2G) markets.
With revenues of approximately $3.6 billion and 7,000 employees in more
than 40 countries, Zebra is a trusted business partner with more than
95 percent of all Fortune 500 companies. We work with companies all
across America, including in many rural communities.
While many Americans may not recognize Zebra by name, they come
into contact with our solutions every day. For example, the barcode
labels that are prominently featured on airline bag tags, express
delivery packages, and pharmaceutical prescription bottles are often
generated by a Zebra barcode label printer, and tracked and managed by
Zebra scanners and mobile computers.
Zebra leads the growing category known as Enterprise Asset
Intelligence (EAI) which describes the ability of businesses to track
critical assets within their operations and know exactly what they are,
where they are, and their condition so they can make smarter, faster
decisions that improve their bottom line. EAI leverages and recognizes
the fact that people, assets, and devices--especially mobile devices--
are becoming increasingly connected and that this trend is advancing at
an exponential rate. A few key facts help illustrate this point:
By 2020, there will be 1.75 billion global mobile workers
accounting for 42 percent of the global workforce.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Source: Strategy Analytics as cited in Visibility That's
Visionary, Zebra Technologies Corporation (May 31, 2016, 11:15 AM),
https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra_new_ia/en-us/campaigns/brand-
campaign/zebra-visibility-vision-report-en-us.pdf.
By 2020, there will be 21 billion connected devices in a
global Internet of Things.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Source: Gartner Group as cited in Visibility That's Visionary,
Zebra Technologies Corporation (May 31, 2016, 11:15 AM), https://
www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra_new_ia/en-us/campaigns/brand-campaign/
zebra-visibility-vision-report-en-us.pdf.
By 2020, there will be 44 zettabytes of data with 10 percent
of it coming from the Internet of Things.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Source: Digital Universe Study as cited in Visibility That's
Visionary, Zebra Technologies Corporation (May 31, 2016, 11:15 AM),
https://www.zebra.com/content/dam/zebra_new_ia/en-us/campaigns/brand-
campaign/zebra-visibility-vision-report-en-us.pdf.
As a result, Zebra is working with companies all across the United
States to provide solutions that yield real-time visibility into their
processes, assets, and people so that faster--and more informed--
decisions can be made. The key elements which enable this work
include:\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Source: Zebra Technologies Corporation, Visibility That's
Visionary, (May 31, 2016, 11:15 AM), https://www.zebra.com/us/en/cpn/
visibility.html.
Sense. The employment of unrivaled expertise in sensor and
device connectivity enables companies to inter-connect devices
to software and to mobile workers so that decision makers and
workers alike have substantially more real-time visibility into
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
operations.
Analyze. Equally important, the provision of easy access to
an unprecedented amount of data that EAI enables allows
companies to plan more effective short-and long-term strategies
by delivering real-time insights into the critical data
captured by the sensors in connected devices.
Act. The explosive growth of mobile devices across the
private, public, and non-profit sectors enables management and
workers at all levels to act on these visibility-driven
insights in real-time, anytime and everywhere.
Businesses, including those in rural America, are recognizing the
transformational role of IoT solutions. These businesses represent many
sectors, including retail, manufacturing, consumer products,
transportation, healthcare, government, oil/gas, and hospitality.
Companies deploy these IoT solutions to address a variety of strategic,
operational, and business challenges.
The following are some industry sector examples being put to use in
companies across rural America:
Manufacturing
In the manufacturing sector, companies are adopting IoT solutions
and the smart factory. Through the principles of Manufacturing 4.0, the
smart factory calls for providing actionable visibility to the entire
operation as well as to those vendors who can help manage the supply
chain. Workers use a combination of RFID, wearables, automated systems
and other emerging technologies to monitor the physical processes of
the plant and enable companies to make decentralized decisions. In the
factory and across the supply chain, firms are also capitalizing on the
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to achieve real-time visibility
into their goods, assets, processes and places.
Like other companies, Whirlpool Corporation wanted to optimize
mobile device management at its distribution centers. Whirlpool was
having problems with misplaced devices, battery life, the inability to
update devices in a systematic way, and a lack of data metrics around
device performance. They needed a centralized management system to
track device health, productivity, location, and ensure proper
deployment.
To solve their problem, Whirlpool began using Zebra XT15 mobile
computers, VH10 vehicle-mounted computers, and Zebra's Operational
Visibility Service (OVS). The VH10 and XT15 are extremely rugged,
reliable devices that suit the distribution center well. OVS helps
Whirlpool and long-time Zebra partner, Industrial Service Technology
(IST) right-size equipment and understand the needs of the pool as well
as site-by-site needs. This combination allows Whirlpool and IST to
sense when there could be a problem, analyze what it is, and act on a
solution in real-time.
As we see with the Whirlpool example, automation provides instant
access to data which is essential to ensuring that the production
process operates smoothly. Manufacturers are realizing the very real
benefits of data connectivity: increased visibility into the entire
manufacturing process; an accelerated pace in shipping and receiving;
faster identification of points-of-failure; and deeper insights into
the inner workings of their operations.
Transportation & Logistics
Companies within the Transportation & Logistics (T&L) sector
literally deliver the U.S. economy. The movement of goods and people
across America and the globe represents the backbone of the overall
supply chain. In T&L, the challenge continues to be how to optimize
delivery as the average floor-loaded trailer could carry 30 percent
more cargo. With tablet-based, trailer load analytics software,
warehouses and fleet managers are given a clear image and the load
statistics of each trailer, allowing them to easily track fulfillment
and ensure cargo loads reach their full potential.
For the movement of goods, companies must leverage IoT solutions to
maintain visibility that is critical to customer service as well as
quality assurance and traceability. Adherence to regulatory compliance
requires visibility often across a complex chain of custody, and that
visibility is gained by transforming the reality of storage, transport,
and delivery into systems of record. For the movement of people, their
baggage, and cargo, IoT solutions offer real-time visibility across a
complex chain of airports, planes, carts, and baggage claim centers. In
each of these scenarios, workers use locationing solutions with a wide
array of purpose-built mobile computing, conditioned labels, RFID, and
other emerging technologies to maintain real-time operational
visibility.
For example, ArcBest Corporation, based in Fort Smith, Arkansas,
ships high-value, time-critical freight anywhere in the world with the
highest level of service in the industry. To fulfill its commitment to
supply chain optimization and premium logistics, ArcBest uses robust
analytics data and advanced technology to develop a supply chain
strategy for its customers to minimize cost and improve the shipping
and logistics process. Ultimately, the power of analytics gives ArcBest
and its customers a competitive advantage.
Retail
The shift to IoT technologies is an industry imperative to keep
step with the shopping habits and expectations of consumers reshaped by
the tech revolution that's still unfurling. Digital disruption--most
profoundly, online shopping and smartphones--has birthed ever
connected, savvy shoppers who have the globe's grandest mall at their
fingertips. And retailers, whether they realize it or not yet, are now
largely catering to Millennials--who have eclipsed Baby Boomers as the
world's largest shopping group and will comprise 75 percent of the
global workforce by 2025. The key takeaway here: this group born
between 1980 and 1995 marks the first generation of digital natives,
for whom technology is second nature.
When it comes to the Internet of Things, stores are paying
attention: nearly 70 percent of retail decision makers are ready to
make changes required to adopt IoT. Already, 21 percent have
implemented IoT and another 27 percent are planning to deploy within a
year.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Source: Zebra's 2017 Retail Vision Study
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bon-Ton Stores, which operates Bon-Ton, Bergner's, Boston
Store, Carson's, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's and Younkers stores, is a
prime example of how retailers are using Zebra's IoT solutions to
improve the in-store customer experience. Today, associates in more
than 180 Bon-Ton retail department stores use Zebra's MC3190-Z RFID
handheld readers on a daily basis to streamline the display compliance
process and know with certainty that all available merchandise is on
display.
As soon as associates arrive in the morning, they scan the selling
floor using the MC3190-Z readers to compare items on display against
on-hand inventories, helping them identify missing items that should be
on the sales floor. Store audits revealed that with the previously used
manual system, up to 20 percent of merchandise in certain categories
might be missing from the sales floor during a given week, resulting in
missed sales opportunities.
The RFID inventory system provides Bon-Ton with deeper visibility
into what merchandise is available at all times. It dramatically
increases inventory management efficiencies by allowing store
associates to scan and tag new merchandise as it first arrives in-store
so it can be immediately placed on display, leading to quicker item
availability for shoppers and increased sales.
In rural America, retailers are seeking better ways to bridge their
online presence with traditional brick-and-mortar stores through cross-
channel selling. Having the ability to collect information, at every
point whenever data changes status--from the manufacturer, through the
distributor, to the sales floor--is significant. Coupling this data
with sales and marketing metrics collected from fixed point-of-sale
(POS) devices and smartphones can pay big dividends in driving customer
loyalty programs. When properly implemented, retailers can link their
smart devices together with their data center and capitalize on each
facet of Big Data.
Healthcare
Heavily regulated and moving to further digitization, the
healthcare industry faces major hurdles in the drive to improve patient
safety, enhance worker efficiency, and control costs. Electronic health
records (EHRs) adoption paves the way for maintaining detailed,
accurate, and life-long individual patient records. In addition,
medical facilities leverage RFID tags to achieve 100 percent asset
visibility, which helps reduce theft, optimize response times and
improve asset utilization by medical staff.
With the right IoT solution, healthcare professionals can integrate
with EHR systems, minimizing medication and laboratory errors, while
maximizing patient safety and improving the quality of care. One
example is our work with Avera Health, an integrated health system
based in Sioux Falls, serving South Dakota and surrounding areas of
Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota. Avera Health serves a
population of nearly one million people through 33 hospitals, 208
primary and specialty care clinics, and 40 senior living facilities.
Based on our partnership with Voalte, Zebra's technology is being used
by Avera Health to improve patient outcomes by integrating voice calls,
text messaging, and alarm and alert notifications on one enterprise
smartphone platform. These technologies also work to improve the
discharge process to speed patient throughput, streamline the
medication order process and optimize alarm management to ensure
patient safety.
B2B IoT Solutions Depend on Access to High-Speed Broadband
For companies in rural America to successfully utilize B2B IoT
solutions, they must have unfettered access to quality high-speed
broadband, both wireline and wireless. Without investment in broadband
infrastructure in rural communities, companies, healthcare providers,
and consumers will be left behind. Spectrum is the lifeblood of IoT,
and that is no different for business IoT solutions.
We urge this subcommittee and the full Committee to support
infrastructure legislation that promotes the deployment of mobile
broadband networks, as well as directs the NTIA and FCC to allocate
more commercial licensed and unlicensed spectrum in a technology
neutral way. Additionally, we urge Congress to advance policies that
increase broadband investment and deployment in rural America.
Zebra also supports coordination among government agencies to
discourage overlapping government regulation of the Internet of Things
which could impede innovation. We congratulate the Committee for your
work to pass the DIGIT Act, and thank you for your efforts to ensure
that industry has the ability to continue to roll out new technologies
to improve the lives of American workers.
In Conclusion
IoT presents a transformative opportunity for enterprises of all
types and sizes all over the Unites States. The benefits of B2B IoT
solutions are allowing companies to work smarter, enhance productivity,
create jobs and improve the overall economy. At Zebra, we are committed
to bringing IoT solutions to companies to help them work better and
smarter, giving them a performance edge. Thank you for the opportunity
to share our story.
Senator Wicker. Thank you very much.
Our next witness is Angela Siefer. Is that correct--Siefer?
Ms. Siefer. Yes, sir.
Senator Wicker. Ms. Siefer, tell us about your organization
and digital inclusion.
STATEMENT OF ANGELA SIEFER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
NATIONAL DIGITAL INCLUSION ALLIANCE
Ms. Siefer. Thank you. My name is Angela Siefer. I
appreciate Chairman Wicker and Ranking Member Schatz and all of
you for having me here today.
I am the Executive Director of the National Digital
Inclusion Alliance. We are a unified voice for digital
inclusion programs and policies. By digital inclusion, we are
referring to public access, home access, digital literacy
skills, appropriate devices, and tech support. It's incredible
that you all are wrapping in the broadband issue with IoT
today. I think that's fabulous.
I grew up outside of Lima, Ohio, which is about an hour
from Dayton. My father passed away about 5 years ago, and he
had this device from the VA. It was a precursor to an IoT, and
what it did was take his vitals. He had COPD, which means that
he couldn't breathe. So when they would take his vitals,
multiple times, a nurse--whoever knows where that nurse was,
right--would see that he was in distress and call the squad.
So that device, that precursor to an IoT, saved his life
multiple times, and what that gained for us was time with my
dad, and it allowed him to live at home instead of someplace
else. But none of that would have been possible without
broadband. He had broadband connection in his home. The device
was connected to the broadband.
So as you all are figuring this out--as we as a country are
figuring out IOT, we have to look at the broadband and not just
the infrastructure but the adoption, and it's fabulous that
that was brought up multiple times today, because we have to
have both in order to get anywhere.
The biggest issue that we have right now is that we don't
have a unified strategy. So there are a handful of programs for
infrastructure, Federal programs. I can tell you there are no
functioning broadband adoption Federal programs right now. I
would like to tell you otherwise, but that's not true. We need
both. We need a Federal strategy that addresses infrastructure
and addresses adoption, and we need to do it together. We can't
just say one and then the other. So we have to address them
both.
The very first thing we can do--because that's a really big
ask. I understand that. The first thing we can do is figure out
the data. Right now, the data that we have is--mostly, what we
use is from the FCC. It's functional. It tells us who has what
data. But if you ask anyone in the field if it's accurate, no,
it's not accurate. That's a huge problem.
So the FCC has recently asked for comments on their Form
477 data. That's great. That needs to seriously change, how
they bring in that data, because that's the first step, because
having the data is what gets us to the maps, and that's both
important nationally and locally. So I ask you to consider that
we all could work together to figure out a strategy for getting
to the IoT, in order to get to the strategy for IoT, that we
get to a broadband strategy.
Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Siefer follows:]
Prepared Statement of Angela Siefer, Executive Director,
National Digital Inclusion Alliance
Chairman Wicker, Ranking Member Schatz, and Members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to be here today on behalf
of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) and our 285
affiliated organizations.
NDIA represents leaders of local community organizations, public
libraries, municipalities and other institutions working hard to reduce
digital disparities among neighbors. To improve the daily lives of all
community members, NDIA calls for digital inclusion public policies
that reflect our affiliates' expertise and diverse experiences.
NDIA's approach is based in the knowledge that broadband adoption
is most effectively promoted by community-driven efforts combining:
Affordable home broadband service.
Public broadband access.
Appropriate affordable devices.
Locally trusted technology training and support.
NDIA represents organizations with a wide range of experience
reducing the digital divide in the United States. The experiences of
our affiliates include providing guidance to low-income parents
connecting to their children's teachers, teaching seniors how to use
their electronic health records, helping veterans learn digital skills
in order to acquire a job, and enabling disabled adults to participate
more fully in their communities. The services of our affiliates include
digital literacy training, public Internet access, home broadband
programs and digital inclusion advocacy.
NDIA currently counts 285 affiliated organizations, including 39
national nonprofits and 210 local public and nonprofit organizations in
37 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our
local affiliates include 23 municipal government bodies, 39 local
public libraries and regional library councils, 14 college/university
programs, 10 state government agencies, 3 local school districts, 7
housing authorities and 114 local nonprofit organizations. The full
list of NDIA affiliates with links to their websites can be found at
https://digitalinclusion.org/members.
The members of this subcommittee clearly recognize the incredible
impact IoT can and will have on the U.S. economy and our residents.
My father passed away five years ago. He had chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease. I grew up outside of Lima, Ohio. The closest VA
clinic to my parents was in Dayton, Ohio, about an hour away. The VA
provided my dad with a device that measured his vitals, including his
oxygen levels. The device used my parents' Internet connection. I have
no idea where the nurse was but somewhere, a nurse reviewed the data
from the device. When necessary, the nurse called the squad for my dad.
That device, a precursor of the IoT, saved my dad's life multiple
times. It bought my family time with him. And it allowed him to live at
home. That would not have been possible without an Internet connection.
But in order for the U.S. to have an IoT strategy that benefits all
Americans, we must understand the barriers to broadband adoption.
The FCC's ``2016 Broadband Progress Report'' found that 10 percent
of all Americans (34 million people) lack access to 25 Mbps/3 Mbps
service. 39 percent of rural Americans (23 million people) lack access
to broadband service as the FCC defines it--25 Mbps/3 Mbps.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Federal Communications Commission. ``2016 Broadband Progress
Report''. January 29, 2016. https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/
reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-progress-report
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
These numbers tell us how many Americans lack access to broadband
service. But just because service is available to the home does not
ensure the resident has subscribed to it, or can subscribe. We know the
greatest barriers to home broadband adoption beyond the infrastructure
itself are cost of the service and digital skills.
Pew Research Center tells us that in 2016, 73 percent of urban U.S.
adults used broadband at home. This drops to 63 percent for rural U.S.
adults.\2\ Neither is acceptable. We are beyond discussing whether or
not home broadband is essential today. Now we must discuss how we
ensure all Americans have affordable home broadband and digital skills
in order to not only make the most of the Internet on a computing
device but to also make the most of IoT. The more of us purchasing and
using IoT, the more valuable those IoT are.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Pew Research Center. ``Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet''. January
12, 2017. http://www.pew
internet.org/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Right now, efforts to address lack of infrastructure and cost of
broadband service and digital skills trainings are local. The Federal
government has a handful of programs addressing infrastructure, but
those efforts are operating without a cohesive Federal strategy.
I can say without a doubt, we have no substantial Federal programs
addressing either the cost of broadband or digital skills. The United
States needs an organized Federal strategy to increase broadband access
and adoption.
There has been a consistent 10-15 percent gap in adoption rates
between rural and urban areas going back to the early 2000s. Research
shows rural broadband adoption (not just access) is crucial for
improved economic outcomes.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Brian Whitacre, Roberto Gallardo, and Sharon Strover. 2014a.
``Broadband's Contribution to Economic Growth in Rural Areas: Moving
towards a Causal Relationship.'' Telecommunications Policy 38(11):
1011-1023. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/
S0308596114000949
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first step toward such a strategy is to improve access and
adoption data. Let's start with the FCC's basic data source--Form 477.
NDIA recently took the opportunity to submit comments in response
to the FCC's Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ``In the Matter of
Modernizing the FCC Form 477 Data Program''. A copy of those comments
is submitted with these remarks. To summarize them very briefly:
(1) The FCC's Form 477 process has a significant problem with the
way it collects fixed broadband deployment information.
Providers are required to report, for each technology used in
each Census block, only the Maximum Advertised Download Speed
and Maximum Advertised Upload Speed available to any
residential customer in the block. Of course, that lucky
maximum-speed customer isn't necessarily typical of the
neighbors. This method has the effect of exaggerating the
speeds available to most households in both urban and rural
communities. It's a serious impediment to our realistic
understanding of the state of broadband access throughout the
U.S. NDIA suggests a simple fix: Form 477 should require each
provider to list, for each home broadband technology deployed,
the speed tiers provided via that technology to households in
each block, and the number of households in the block for which
each tier is the maximum available.
(2) Form 477 also provides the only localized information we have on
actual household broadband adoption, in the form of Census
tract-level fixed broadband subscription counts used to create
the FCC's Internet Access Services mapping data. NDIA suggested
two modest changes in the FCC's collection and reporting of the
provider subscription data incorporated in the Internet Access
Services reports: Collect household totals for each tract at
three or four meaningful speed benchmarks, not just the current
200 kbps and 10 mbps thresholds; and publish those totals as
actual percentages of total households, rather than the
unnecessarily broad ranges now in use.
The point of these recommendations is the need to improve the
accuracy and usefulness of the broadband deployment and adoption data
that the FCC collects, maps, and reports to us all--the data that
informs public discussion of the Nation's progress in making both the
Internet of Things and the Internet of People available to us all.
With better public data on both topics--and a clear understanding
that the Internet of Things isn't likely to make its way into homes
that either can't access or can't afford conventional broadband
connections--NDIA is certain we have a much better chance of making the
benefits of IoT available to all Americans, rural and urban alike.
I must stress, again, the need for the U.S. to have a cohesive and
funded broadband access and adoption strategy.
Thank you.
Attachment
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator Wicker. Thank you very, very much.
I will now recognize members for questions, using the five-
minute rule, and I will defer to later and recognize Senator
Fischer.
STATEMENT OF HON. DEB FISCHER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEBRASKA
Senator Fischer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for
convening today's hearing to discuss the importance of
technology and innovation that's driving the development of the
Internet of Things across all sectors of our economy.
Chief among the industries supplying IoT innovations is
production agriculture. Farmers and ranchers face high levels
of risk that range from extreme weather conditions to
fluctuating commodity markets. To counteract these challenges
and remain competitive, ag producers rely on technological
advancements to continue to provide for their families and also
to feed a hungry world.
Today, I want to welcome Tim Hassinger, CEO and President
of Lindsay Corporation, which is located in Omaha, Nebraska.
While Mr. Hassinger is not new to production agriculture, he is
new to Lindsay. He has been CEO a little less than a month.
Prior to joining Lindsay, he was President and CEO of Dow
AgroSciences. I want to thank him for testifying today about
the technological needs of our nation's farmers.
Lindsay Irrigation System manufactures Zimmatic center
pivots, which dot our Nation's countryside and provide
essential natural resource enhancement capabilities. Nebraska
is rich in groundwater, thanks to the Ogallala Aquifer.
Innovators like Lindsay provide our ag producers with the
resources and tools necessary so that they can maximize yields,
safeguard the soil, and better manage our pressure water
resources. Access to technology has become the number one
driver to accelerate ag producers into the future, and today's
rural areas experience increased productivity due to the
adoption of new technologies that are fueling U.S. agricultural
growth.
However, many producers still lack access to basic Internet
and broadband technologies, and that leaves them at a
competitive disadvantage. While we cannot be data rich, we seem
to be information poor, and it's important that we provide our
ag producers and our leading innovators like Lindsay the
connectivity and the tools that they need.
Mr. Hassinger, can you please expand on the broader picture
of when farmers are not able to access broadband, such as
planting and productivity, and how does this lack of
connectivity affect when you have machine operations or machine
to farm operations?
Mr. Hassinger. Well, thank you, Senator Fischer, and I
would describe your summary as well said in terms of the
challenge in front of us. Just to bring a little more context
to it, a recent USDA report indicates that just under 30
percent of the farms across our rural country do not have
access to broadband capability. So when you look at that--and
I'll just use the technology that Lindsay has brought forward
called Field Net Advisor, which is simply a pivot control tool
that allows science-based recommendations to the irrigation.
Our trials would say that that is generating roughly an
additional $40 per acre, to put that in--again, more
information.
On corn trials, that was a 3 percent yield. It was reducing
the trips over the field. It reduced the energy cost, which
brought a $40 per acre profit. But, equally important, it
reduced the amount of water used per acre by 17 percent.
Senator Fischer, what that says is roughly 30 percent of our
farmers are not getting access to that type of technology. So
that's a competitive disadvantage for them, and this is a space
where increasing investment is being made, and you would
anticipate that divide would only get wider over time.
Senator Fischer. You know, when we look at the connectivity
that's available for broadband, especially mobile broadband,
what kind of metrics do you think we need to consider when we
address that network? A lot of times, we look at road miles.
Don't you think we ought to look at acres?
Mr. Hassinger. Well, I think absolutely. The----
Senator Fischer. Especially in sparsely populated areas?
Mr. Hassinger. Without a doubt. You know, here, I'm
mentioning that roughly 30 percent of the farms that don't have
access. The more critical metric, as you said, would be the
amount of acres that are not covered related to that. I put
this--I think something that's very powerful on this is at a
time when we know--and there's a lot of talk about the need to
increase food production--irrigated acres represent roughly 16
percent of the total acres, but they represent 44 percent of
the total output. So making sure that those acres, as you
mentioned, Senator Fischer, have access to the newest
technology becomes only even more important as we go forward.
Senator Fischer. Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your courtesy.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Fischer.
Senator Schatz.
Senator Schatz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all
of the testifiers.
Ms. Siefer, I have a question for you about the two
rulemakings that are happening at the FCC. The first is to
change the form, and I think there's some support for that. I
wanted to get your comments on that.
But the second is to redefine what broadband is, and I want
to make sure the Committee understands what the FCC is doing.
They're redefining broadband from 25 down, 3 up--please nod if
I'm getting that right--yes--25 down, 3 up, to 10 down, 1 up.
So what they're doing is just--they're going to redefine
broadband so that they can declare that more people have
broadband now. But all they're doing is playing with words as
opposed to helping people to get access to broadband.
I'm wondering if you can comment on both of those
rulemakings, Ms. Siefer.
Ms. Siefer. Senator Schatz, I'll be happy to. The change in
the speed is really significant for IoT. If anything, IoT means
we're going to need more speeds, not less speeds. The issue
related to the 25-3 down to 10-1 is inclusion of mobile in that
definition. But mobile comes with data caps. As mentioned
earlier, mobile is not a solution, at least not currently,
until we could not have data caps. Ask any farmer if data caps
are useful, right, and they'll be very frustrated with the
question.
Senator Schatz. Is there any community of users of IoT or
broadband that is pushing for this change from 25-3 to 10-1?
I'm just wondering who's asking for this change? Why is this
change being made?
Mr. Adcock, I wanted to, first of all, thank you for
everything you've done on----
Senator Wicker. Does anyone wish to volunteer to answer
that question?
Mr. Terzich. Senator, I was just going to add I'm not aware
of anyone that's asking for that, specifically. Quite frankly,
it's a bit illogical, given the density and the information
exchange requirements on a go-forward basis.
Mr. Hassinger. I would just add that I share the same view.
From a farming community, I'm not aware of any push for
reclassifications, as you mentioned.
Senator Schatz. Anybody else?
[No verbal response.]
Senator Schatz. Mr. Adcock, my favorite topic--telehealth.
We've been working together with Senator Cochran's staff and
you and the University of Hawaii, and we're making good
progress. Just a big picture question: What should the
Congress--I know we worked together on amending the statute to
allow Medicare to reimburse for telehealth services, and that's
for another committee to consider. But what, in terms of the
deployment of broadband, do you think is the next step that
either the FCC or this committee should undertake?
Mr. Adcock. Thank you very much, and it has been a pleasure
to work with you and different Members of Congress to try to
advance telehealth. We have great need in Mississippi. I know
that there's great need across the country. I would say that
the deployment of broadband is extremely important.
While there are things that we can do--remote patient
monitoring--there are things that we can do that don't require
video, constant video. As the technologies advance and as the
adoption increases with physicians and providers across the
country, there's going to be more and more done in a patient's
home, including video visits. While that's happening now, it's
not happening with a great spread across the country.
So we need to be able to have high-speed Internet in a
patient's home that's reliable. It's not just about getting the
capabilities there. It's about making sure that it's reliable
and available. You can have as much connectivity into the home
as you want. If it's not available at the time that it's
needed, it's not going to help the patient. So we have to be
able to have that priority of usage.
I think that the Rural Wireless Act and also the SPEED Act
will help some of the deployment, to streamline review,
accelerate deployment. Anytime that we can decrease the time
that it takes to get the infrastructure out into these
communities that have lower population density, that decreases
cost and actually increases deployment, and being able to
standardize that data reporting will help distribute funds to
areas that are in need. So there's----
Senator Schatz. A quick final question for Mr. Terzich. Do
you think there should be minimum security standards for IoT
devices, and do you think that should be set in statute or
rule, or do you think that should be done primarily by the
private sector?
Mr. Terzich. Well, you know, I'm not in a position to
comment on the legislative side of that question. But I would
offer the following. You know, for us, we're principally a B-
to-B organization, and security is always a central part of the
equation with our enterprise customers. I do believe, however,
that at the consumer level, on the B-to-C side, that with the
proliferation of interconnected devices, that some
standardization should be applied, because I do see the
consequential risk associated with broad proliferation of those
devices across cloud-based computing capability.
Senator Schatz. Thank you very much.
Senator Wicker. I have next Senator Gardner followed by
Senator Moran.
Senator Gardner.
STATEMENT OF HON. CORY GARDNER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO
Senator Gardner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
this hearing today. Thanks to all the witnesses and your
statements this morning.
Thanks as well to Mr. Armitage, who joins us today from the
great state of Colorado, where it's snowing a little bit, and
we do, as a reminder to the Committee, have some ski resorts
that are open right now.
[Laughter.]
Senator Gardner. The Internet of Things is quickly
transforming the way that we do business, go about our daily
lives, and interact with our surroundings. As a member of the
Internet of Things Working Group with Senators Fischer, Schatz,
and Booker, I had the opportunity to work to promote
legislation like the DIGIT Act, which some have already spoken
about today, to encourage public-private collaboration on IoT
related issues and prepare for the exciting future that these
products really do mean for us.
While we should continue expanding and encouraging
development of IoT, we must also be mindful of the security
concerns, as Senator Schatz has talked about, which is why
Senator Warner and I introduced the IoT Cybersecurity
Improvement Act of 2017. Smarter devices should contain smart
advancements in secure technology, and the Federal Government
should set the gold standard for basic cyber hygiene. I do
think it's an important conversation that we have, and Senator
Schatz stumbled upon the question when he talked about setting
the standards at the Federal level versus having that driven by
the private sector, perhaps guided by a Federal procurement
process.
One warning that this body has to consider is when Congress
tries to set a standard and define the technology. We have to
be careful that the technology doesn't evolve to a point where
it backfires on us. A perfect example being in Colorado, where
we created a criminal statute on Internet luring of a child
using a Blackberry, and a judge determined that a Blackberry
did not have the computing capability to be defined as a
computer, and, therefore, the statute was no longer able to be
applied in that instance. The case had to be dropped because we
tried to define a technology, and a judge thought that we
didn't actually get it right.
We have to be very careful when we're defining technology
in a statute, and that's why the approach that we've taken is
sort of a procurement level process that tries to drive private
sector innovation. I'm excited that we have a group of
individuals here today that can explain the benefits of IoT to
our communities, and I look forward to having many more
conversations with you.
Mr. Armitage, you mentioned in your testimony the need for
connectivity along with routes that your oil and gas company
partners travel on a daily basis. You also talk about efforts
to enhance that connectivity through partnerships and
collaboration with the wireless industry. Could you talk a
little bit more about this point? Obviously, Ms. Siefer talked
a little bit about the challenges between mobile wireless
issues and broadband availability. Do you view the business
need for IoT in rural areas as a catalyst for expanding rural
broadband and connectivity? I guess it's kind of a chicken and
the egg kind of question, so to speak.
Mr. Armitage. Mr. Hassinger brings up a very important
notion that we should be really evaluating, at least in the
context of the industrial IoT, which is the availability of
broadband connectivity in a per-acre as opposed to per-road
network. When we look at the coverage on the Nation's road
networks and around the population centers, it's stunning. But
when we look at the coverage available out in remote and rural
areas off of those roads, it's pretty dead out there.
There's no question that the work this committee can do to
encourage and enhance the private sector to push more and more
coverage and more and more bandwidth into those areas is
critically important to the viability of agriculture, the
economic prosperity of the energy industry, and many, many
other sectors.
One thing that I think is interesting to consider is that
the FCC should be encouraged, in my opinion, to open up more
frequency, more bandwidth spectrum to push more wireless
coverage into these remote areas. It's not always economically
viable to string wires and pull fiber into remote fields, but
it is absolutely true that enhanced high-speed cellular
networks will serve as a catalyst for everything that this
group up here is talking about today.
Senator Gardner. Thank you, Mr. Armitage. I know Senator
Hassan and I are working on legislation that would make more
spectrum available across the country, and it would also take a
unique approach that I hope this committee takes very
seriously. When we raise the funds through the auction that
this spectrum would require, it would take about a 10 percent
chunk of that and set the money raised through that spectrum
auction, and make it available for rural broadband deployment.
I think that could be a significant benefit for this closing of
the digital divide that we've talked about and the challenges
we face.
I can guarantee you that while the cellular phone map shows
that south of Yuma, Colorado, there is cell coverage between
Yuma and Joes, Colorado, by the time you hit Smith Dairy into
Abarr, Colorado, and you go down to Joes and Kirk, you do not
have cell coverage. I know that means absolutely nothing to
anybody here. However, for those of us who look at a map and
say we should have coverage, it means a whole lot.
Mr. Hassinger, you and I may be the only people in this
room, particularly, maybe even in this Congress, who have made
a living selling farm equipment. We have a Zimmatic sprinkler
on our farm north of town. We sell Case IH farm equipment. We
started out with our first--I guess we sold a subscription, a
satellite subscription, for a GPS system, and then we moved
from that to try to use the Coast Guard beacons. We're too far
away from the Coast Guard beacons in eastern Colorado to use
them, so we now have our own signal.
You know, you're not going to be able to run a sprinkler
some day when you manually change the drop nozzles, or the drip
nozzles, on a sprinkler if you're going to have an IoT device
applying individual amounts of chemigation to an individual
plant. You're going to have to have broadband capability to do
that. I'm running out of time. It's exciting stuff, and we've
got a lot of work to do.
Mr. Hassinger. I would echo exactly what you said.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Gardner. Senator Schatz
wanted to point out that in Hawaii, it's currently 85 degrees.
[Laughter.]
Senator Wicker. There is some mountain in Hawaii that has
snow.
Senator Schatz. I'm sorry--75. The sun is not out yet.
Senator Gardner. The skiing in Haleakala is just not that
good.
[Laughter.]
Senator Wicker. Senator Moran.
STATEMENT OF HON. JERRY MORAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM KANSAS
Senator Moran. Kansans are always delighted when there's
snow in Colorado, assuming that the water will then come to our
state.
Let me start with Mr. Hassinger. A bit of follow-up to
Senator Gardner. You said in your commentary that 30 percent of
our farms are not getting that technology. Is that a Nebraska
statistic? Based upon this conversation we're having about how
we determine who has broadband and who doesn't, how does one
reach that conclusion or that specific number?
Mr. Hassinger. Senator, first of all, to the earlier
comment, that's a definition as it was described as 25 down and
3 up, from that standpoint. Let me give you the specific
source. It is from USDA. Specifically, the National
Agricultural Statistics Service released its Farm Computer
Usage and Ownership Report in August, and that's where that
data is coming from. Just slightly under 30 percent of the
farms do not have that access, under the definition that I just
described.
Senator Moran. It didn't lend itself to a definition of
farms, which is an agriculture question. I see your equipment
in Kansas a lot. I'm familiar with Lindsay Corporation. I would
highlight for my colleagues on the Committee that our
Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Data Security will have
a hearing next Tuesday, November the fourteenth, to focus on
data usage practices specifically for farms and innovative
opportunities to improve yield, sustainability, and
interconnection among our rural farmers. We're continuing this
conversation.
I wanted to ask you, Mr. Hassinger. What is the most
prominent challenging barriers to successfully connecting rural
communities and farms to high-speed broadband? What are the
programs? In the FCC, we would have Universal Service Fund;
USDA, we'd have Rural Development dollars. What is it that the
Federal Government is not doing that Congress needs to do?
Mr. Hassinger. Senator, I feel very comfortable
representing where the value and the opportunity is in front of
us. I'm going to have to pause and say that my expertise and
knowledge in terms of how to exactly solve it is still further
behind, from that standpoint. So what I really want to
reinforce is the value that I can see through the technology
that companies like ours is bringing and the need for it. But
I'll have to pause on answering specifically your question.
Senator Moran. Let me also ask you a question about
something you said. Are 16 percent of the acres that are
irrigated represent 44 percent of the yields? Is that a
Nebraska or is that a national statistic?
Mr. Hassinger. No, that's a national number also.
Senator Moran. Thank you very much.
Let me ask you a question, Ms. Siefer. In regard to
veterans' issues, what you described with your father is very
compelling. I understand the value of that circumstance. What
role did the VA play in your father's capability to access that
technology, if any?
Ms. Siefer. Right. So the VA's role was to bring him the
device, and then I hooked it up, and that was 5 years ago. So
the VA today--I would hope--frankly, they're not very
communicative--maybe that will change shortly--about their
broadband efforts. But I would encourage them to have efforts
where they are making sure that the individuals that they're
working with do have access at home, not just for the health
reasons, the health IoT, but jobs and economy and everything
else.
Senator Moran. Ms. Siefer or Mr. Adcock, do you have any
understanding of the differences between the private sector and
the VA in regard to what they're doing to provide in-home
healthcare through technology? Is the private sector ahead of
the VA?
Mr. Adcock, any sense of that?
Mr. Adcock. I would say that the VA is a leader in
telehealth, obviously. I can tell you about our program. We
actually--when we're doing remote patient monitoring, we go in
and check the cell signal in the home where it's going to be
used to make sure that it's going to qualify for being able to
utilize the equipment. So we make sure that that cellular
service is available by utilizing the local providers and the
regional providers in our state.
And if, for some reason, it's not available, we work to try
to see if there's a wired option available. If that's not
available, we talk to the service providers and let them know
where there are coverage lapses so that we can look down the
road to be able to enhance that coverage. I will tell you that
because of remote patient monitoring not needing as much of the
high speed, we're able to deliver that service in more areas
throughout the state.
Senator Moran. When you say more areas--Mr. Hassinger and I
talked about the 30 percent of acres not--the broadband, the
technology, not available. What's your experience for when this
service is not available to patients who need it because of
lack of service?
Mr. Adcock. For remote patient monitoring, again, it can
run on a 3G connection, so there are very few patients that
we've come across, probably less than 1 percent, that cannot--
that we can't use our remote patient monitoring solution on.
Now, if you start talking about being able to do video visits
into the home, which is coming, we're going to run into a lot
more issues, a lot more connectivity issues in the homes. Right
now, we're able to meet most of those issues, whether it's in
the home or in the school, wherever it might need to be.
Senator Moran. Do you have a sense of what percentage would
be unable to have video?
Mr. Adcock. I do not at this point, but that's something I
can look at and get back to you.
Senator Moran. Thanks to all the panelists for your
testimony.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Moran.
Senator Klobuchar.
STATEMENT OF HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I'm one of the co-chairs of the Broadband Caucus. We've
been working really hard, especially to try to get
infrastructure funding in any kind of an infrastructure bill
that could come across our desk. I know that the President
pledged to make infrastructure a priority, and we think rural
broadband should be a major part of that.
So, Mr. Hassinger, I was just in Winnebago, Minnesota, on
Friday and saw a company called Aker Ag, and they're doing some
incredible work with drones and looking at being able to get
soil samples out, and then being able to figure out in a better
way for the environment, but also a more cost-effective way for
our farmers--former Congressman Tim Penny was with me there.
He's helped--his foundation has helped fund some of this
operation. It just made me think about--this is all going to be
great, but if they don't have broadband to get the data, to
report it back to the companies that are supplying these
farmers, it's not going to work.
So could you talk about this precision ag that we're
heading into now and how important it's going to be to have
real-time data updates and reliable service for our farmers?
Mr. Hassinger. Well, Senator, I'll go back and hit the key
points that I said earlier, and, again, I'm just using one
example, the Field Net Advisor. But a $40 per acre profit--on
average, is what we're seeing--is a significant difference, and
only to your point, the investment is increasing there, so you
would expect that divide to get greater as we go forward. I
think it's a fundamental competitiveness that, longer term, is
going to be a significant challenge if these farms that are not
having access to this broadband capability--it's going to
really put them at a disadvantage.
Senator Klobuchar. Exactly. And I think there is also--for
a lot of my friends on the Committee that are focused on
environmental issues as well, there is a major advantage to
that for where they put pesticides, or how much water they put
in, if they're able to measure that soil to make it better, and
they can't do that if they don't have that information.
Mr. Hassinger. Absolutely. And, Senator, I would just add
that at a time when farms are getting bigger, and the need for
managing those larger acreages, this type of technology only
becomes even more important also.
Senator Klobuchar. OK. Very good.
I introduced the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband
bill, including--I think Senators Capito and Sullivan worked
with me on that, and this focuses on a study out of the
Department of Commerce to conduct an analysis of the effects of
broadband deployment and adoption on the U.S. economy.
Ms. Siefer, how would that be helpful for organizations
like the National Digital Inclusion Alliance to reduce this
divide?
Ms. Siefer. Having that data would help us convince
funders, frankly, because that's the big challenge right now. A
lot of folks will say, ``Yes, we definitely need broadband. We
need folks who know how to use it.'' But then when you turn to
figuring out who it is that's going to pay for it, that's a
little more challenging, because they want the end numbers.
They want to know did someone get a job. So that study could
help that argument in making sure that we do have adequate
funding for the programs.
Senator Klobuchar. Maybe it'll help here, around this
building, too.
Mr. Adcock, recently, Senators Roberts and Moran and I led
a letter with 39 Senators urging the FCC to continue advancing
broadband deployment in rural communities through the USF fund,
the Universal Service Fund, and we've seen some progress, but
not enough. Could you talk about the Universal Service Fund,
how that's helped in Mississippi, and have you seen price
disparities for broadband service between rural and urban
areas?
Mr. Adcock. Thank you very much. Yes, we have been active
in the Universal Service Fund for quite a while, where we--
we've based ourselves in the hub to lots of the other sites
across the state, and it's allowed us to not only build
infrastructure, but also decrease the cost of that wireless
that's--I mean, the broadband that's available to those
institutions. I do not have an exact dollar figure of how much
those funds have helped, but it has been a great program that
we continue to be interested in. As far as the disparities in
rural versus urban, I do not have the answer to that question.
Senator Klobuchar. Well, I think we have to modernize the
Universal Service Fund. Some work has been done at the FCC, but
not enough----
Mr. Adcock. Right.
Senator Klobuchar--and there's a ton of money in there, and
then we have these rural areas that basically--while they now
have Internet, they don't have the kind of Internet in many
places in my state that's going to allow them to compete, as
was just pointed out.
I will leave my question on Chairman Wicker's Rural
Wireless Access Act for the record. I don't want to go over my
time. But I'm a co-sponsor of that bill and it's very
important. So thank you.
Senator Wicker. And thank you, Senator Klobuchar.
Senator Hassan.
STATEMENT OF HON. MAGGIE HASSAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
Senator Hassan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning to all of our witnesses. Thank you so much for
being here this morning, and thank you for shining a light on
the importance of this so-called Internet of Things to rural
communities. It is clear from your testimony that the Internet
of Things will bring major positive changes all across our
country, and I'm certainly eager to see the benefits to our
society and our economy.
Coming from a state with many rural areas that New
Hampshire has, I am also very concerned about the broadband
issue, that last mile issue, and I wanted to take the
opportunity--if you all don't know it and if my colleagues
don't know it--Commissioner Rosenworcel on the FCC has an e-
mail address, broadband
fail@fcc.gov, where people can report in their lack of
broadband access, because she thinks it's about time, as do I,
that we crowdsource this rather than waiting on the census
block maps which are so inaccurate. So I would encourage
constituencies everywhere to report in whether they've got
broadband or not in certain areas.
Toward that end--no, it's not just broadband. It's
obviously access and availability of spectrum that is going to
be so important as we deploy more and more of the IoT. So I
joined with my friend, Senator Gardner, to introduce the
AIRWAVES Act, which aims not only to get some funding for rural
broadband, but also to free up more spectrum. The legislation
creates a pipeline of spectrum so that industry has something
to rely on as we move forward.
So I'd love your comments to the Committee on the
importance of the availability of spectrum for IoT as well as
the importance of having an abundant supply of both licensed
and unlicensed spectrum for these devices to function. We can
start with Mr. Adcock and just work right down the line.
Mr. Adcock. I don't have an answer to that at this point.
I'm sorry.
Senator Hassan. That's fine.
Mr. Armitage.
Mr. Armitage. We currently process at Cartasite over 3,000
events per second from 34 countries. I can tell you that in the
United States, more than 10 percent of the workers' time is
spent outside of coverage areas--10 percent. This is an
enormous amount of our country that is currently not covered by
spectrum, by any cellular coverage at all. We don't see it when
we drive down the nation's highways. We absolutely see it when
we drive in these rural areas of the U.S. So we can provide
some very interesting insight as to where that coverage is
lacking right now.
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
Mr. Hassinger.
Mr. Hassinger. Senator, I don't have anything further to
add.
Senator Hassan. OK. Thank you.
Mr. Terzich. Senator, I would just make a simple statement
that says both across spectrum and broadband, in general, that
for our business, for our enterprise customers, it's, quite
frankly, table stakes. You absolutely can't enable some of the
business, the B-to-B benefit. You can't enable the exchange of
real-time information without having this capability.
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
Ms. Siefer.
[No verbal response.]
Senator Hassan. Well, then, the other thing I wanted to
just explore a little further with all of you is concerning
cybersecurity. It's estimated that 8.4 billion things will be
used this year alone, which opens up a lot of risk, and as you
probably all know, in New Hampshire, a company named Dyn, Inc.,
knows all too well how this risk translates into a devastating
cyber attack. In late 2016, Dyn was subjected to a major cyber
attack in which the attackers co-opted baby monitors and other
Internet connected devices infected with malware, and that
flooded the servers of this Internet hosting company. The
attack led to dozens of major retailers and media sites being
taken offline for several hours, causing an unknown amount of
loss of revenue for those companies.
So if we're going to prevent the ability of hackers to
disrupt our economy and the flow of information, we're going to
have to take action to try to raise the cyber defenses of
consumers' Internet connected devices. I join Senator Warner
and Senator Gardner's legislation on the Internet of Things
Cybersecurity Act, and as we have discussed, that really is
focused on requirements for things that the government
purchases. But I would be interested in your thoughts on how we
can enhance cybersecurity in the entire Internet of Things
market. What's your approach to cybersecurity, and how should
the Federal Government work with the private sector to ensure
devices are secure?
Ms. Siefer, I'll start with you, and I realize we're short
on time. So just quick answers, if you can.
Ms. Siefer. Just to make sure everyone realizes that the
cybersecurity issues also influence broadband adoption, because
if you are scared, right, because you don't trust the Internet
of Things, you're not going to use the Internet of Things.
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
Anyone else, just briefly?
Mr. Hassinger.
Mr. Hassinger. The only thing I would add, Senator, to
broaden your question is the actual ownership of the data.
Senator Hassan. Yes.
Mr. Hassinger. Speaking of our situation, the customer owns
the data, and then our responsibility is only to collect it,
store it, and transfer it. So the broader part of that is the
security, but also the ownership of the data.
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
Anyone else?
Mr. Adcock. Obviously, being in healthcare, security is
always a concern. It's something that we pay a lot of attention
to and make sure that we encrypt data on both ends, both in
transit and at rest. But, again, if the patients aren't
comfortable with that cybersecurity and what steps we're
taking, they're not going to use it.
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for letting me go over.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Hassan.
Senator Cortez Masto.
STATEMENT OF HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you
for this discussion. It's one we have been having and
rightfully so. I'm from Nevada--110,000 square miles of the
five largest counties across the country. We have two of them
in Nevada with small populations. And when we're talking about
rural Nevada, and you want to get off the grid, drive through
rural Nevada. You literally cannot connect.
That's the challenge. That's the challenge for many people
that live in rural parts of our state, and that's why I, along
with my colleagues, have been fighting to bring broadband and
connectivity to our rural communities for the very reasons that
we're talking about. Telemedicine is key. There's so many
services that we can bring to our rural communities that are
challenged.
But I'd like to start also with Mr. Hassinger. Obviously,
some of the agriculture in Nebraska is a little different than
that in Nevada. But you hit on a similar concern, and that's
water. Can you speak further about the opportunity of improving
the precision of measuring drought or measuring possible
conditions to predict wildfires?
Mr. Hassinger. So, Senator, what I was referring to--and,
again, the tool I'll highlight is referred to as Field Net
Advisor. What this is is there has been technology for several
years that help determine the center pivots, the irrigation
equipment. But now we're moving to a level of being able to
align that with recommendations based on soil conditions, the
weather, the specific genetics of that crop. What we're seeing
is not only are we getting an increase in yield by use of that
technology, but you're using less water. Simply, you're putting
it right where the plant needs it with only the amount that it
needs.
In the example that we have, the trials, we were able to
get an increase in yield with 17 percent less water. So the
conservation of water is obviously critical for the whole
agricultural story, and we see this being a key driver in what
we're talking about and the need for the adoption of this type
of technology.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Mr. Terzich, I appreciate the various applications you
underscored in your testimony. Can you talk to me about
examples of where the Internet of Things is benefiting tourism,
mainly in rural areas, for example, the hospitality sector or
the outdoor economy?
Mr. Terzich. I can. You know, for us in the hospitality
space, it's become a growing area of interest. I can point to
some specific examples. They may not necessarily be as relevant
to Nevada as they are to other places. Mr. Young had left. But
in the state of Colorado, we use a variety of real-time
locationing tags that principally go on every skier that
attends any of the Vail resorts in Colorado. So it enhances
your hospitality experience. It tells you the vertical feet you
skied, the miles you skied, which runs you did, and people
share that information, post their experience on social media,
as an example.
In the cruise and transportation industry, you're seeing
more use of passenger identification for applications as simple
as mustering or simply as we're leaving a certain port. A
cruise ship is leaving a port. It has to know within an instant
moment that everyone is available, is back on that ship as
planned. If something happens in transit, they want to know if
somebody has left the ship, as examples.
In areas of theme parks, there are lots of use of Internet
of Things to adjust the traffic at various attractions. So they
actually look at dynamic work flow in the form of which
attractions have a large volume of people. They use lots of
technology, fast pass technology, things you may hear of in the
public domain, to basically do better crowd management so that
you enhance your experience and get the opportunity to see more
attractions through the course of your day.
Senator Cortez Masto. So in our rural communities, where
there's hiking and rock climbing and mountain biking,
literally, in areas that are remote, it's important to bring
that sort of broadband there to have that security kind of
connectivity for individuals that, unfortunately, may
experience some sort of injury or something. We want to make
sure we track people and be able to help them and access them
immediately if there's some sort of injury.
Mr. Terzich. Absolutely, the ability to respond to a
critical situation, and I would venture to guess that for
hikers and outdoor enthusiasts, the same interest applies,
right? They want to know where they went, how many vertical
feet they climbed, or how many trails they encountered. So you
get the ancillary benefit of some social response as well as
the ability to handle critical situations.
Senator Cortez Masto. Thank you.
Any other comments?
[No verbal response.]
Senator Cortez Masto. I notice my time is up. I've got
other questions, but I'll submit those for the record.
Thank you.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Cortez Masto.
Senator Cantwell.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON
Senator Cantwell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the
witnesses.
Mr. Armitage, thank you for your testimony. I look at it
with great interest because I think that you described well
what happens as technology comes to any sector. I always say
around here--I try to explain the transitioning economy and say
to my young colleagues, the people in my office, there's a
reason Ma Bell doesn't exist anymore, and they look at me and
they say ``Who's Ma Bell?'' because they don't know.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cantwell. So I'd say that we've gone through this
major transition of a big behemoth in telecomm to now this data
we get in our handheld devices every day. So your testimony
talks about that, particularly as it relates to the workforce
and the impact on the workforce. Yet I'm assuming you believe
that the efficiencies are still worth--driving efficiencies to
be competitive in your sector, and I'm assuming that you want
to be rewarded for those, not penalized for those. By that, I
mean there are some people who are discussing, you know,
letting people waive environmental issues just to--so that
they'll drill in certain areas, and I think you've been a state
that's adhered to all the environmental issues. So my guess is
you wouldn't want to be waiving those. That's not really the
subject of my question, but if you want to comment on that, you
can.
Mr. Armitage. Let me just touch on that point. My
experience in the last 35 years working in the oil and gas
industry is that the executives that I know are extraordinarily
concerned about the safety of their workers and about the
social responsibility of operating in an environmentally
conscientious way, very committed to environmental stewardship,
consistently across the board throughout the industry.
Senator Cantwell. Right. So on the larger cyber issues,
since we're seeing all these attacks by state actors, if you
will, on critical infrastructure, everything from the networks
of nuclear power plants to pipelines. I mean, we don't want to
see the Ukraine situation here in the U.S. What do you think we
should be doing to further our cybersecurity?
Mr. Armitage. It is a subject that confronts us literally
every day. It is an incredibly important issue, and we should
bring it to light and talk about it extensively. Our servers
get hit by bad actors literally multiple times a day. We're
deployed, I believe, now in 34 countries. Many of those
countries are not friendly to the United States. We have
American workers and millions of dollars of assets that we
monitor for U.S. companies throughout the world, and as a
result, we are tested continuously. We've worked very closely
for the last 11 years with Amazon and with Google and many
other cloud providers to ensure the integrity of our systems,
both from the perspective of security and availability.
So I will tell you that this is an issue near and dear to
my heart. Mr. Adcock mentioned before the notion of encrypting
on both sides of the transaction--vitally important. It's one
of a myriad of issues that we should be paying attention to as
we consider the industrial Internet of Things.
Senator Cantwell. Well, thank you for that. I know that--to
me, I believe that there's much efficiency in what you've done
with your business and in smart buildings and everything else.
But we do have to get more serious about the cybersecurity
issues as a nation, and, as you said, some of this is state
actors, acting with malice against our country. So I hope we
can up our game here, and I look forward to following up with
you on that in collaboration. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Wicker. Thank you.
Senator Udall.
STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO
Senator Udall. Thank you so much, Senator Wicker, for this
hearing and the importance of what you all have testified to
today.
The application of the Internet of Things to rural America
is absolutely critical, and I think your testimony has
demonstrated that. I worry that unless we act aggressively and
with purpose now, rural America will be stuck with the Internet
of nothing. This is particularly true for my home state of New
Mexico, where Internet services, connections, and applications
lag way behind.
Each one of us know that rural areas do not have the same
coverage and access as urban areas. To catch up, we must invest
in high-speed broadband networks as well as other technology to
connect the hardest to serve areas. And while I appreciate my
colleague's efforts to help ease permitting and other hurdles,
what companies need is sustainable, reliable funding and
investment.
The FCC's Universal Service Fund programs are essential to
connecting all areas of the country. But I'm concerned with the
current direction of some of these programs. For example, the
Rural Healthcare Program has been capped at $400 million since
its inception, even now, as that demand has been growing every
year. This year, providers in New Mexico have been adversely
impacted due to the unilateral actions of the program
administrator, denying requests for funding because there is
not enough funding. This is not sustainable for rural
healthcare providers, and it's not fair to patients in rural
communities.
New Mexico has successfully used the Rural Healthcare
Program, and it has saved significant healthcare dollars. For
example, Project Access, a partnership between the University
of New Mexico and a rural hospital, has performed over 1,200
consults across the state, saving patients the expense of being
transported hundreds of miles to our largest city, Albuquerque.
This program alone is estimated to have saved rural New Mexico
hospitals $12 million, which is obviously a very significant
savings.
The high-cost fund and the Connect America Program support
carriers providing service to rural areas, but too many rural
carriers in New Mexico face both shrinking support from the FCC
and increased costs. We must do better if we genuinely want the
Internet of Things to be a reality for rural connectivity.
Mr. Adcock, has the University of Mississippi Medical
Center received support from the Rural Healthcare Fund?
Mr. Adcock. We have, as the hub of several spokes, so yes,
in the rural areas.
Senator Udall. Do you think that fund should be increased
to better support increased participation in the program?
Mr. Adcock. I think the more funds that are available, the
more that we can spread our service.
Senator Udall. And, Mr. Adcock, healthcare providers in New
Mexico have expressed concern that the Universal Service
Administrative Company requires them to enter into long-term
contracts with service providers without a guarantee of funding
from the Rural Healthcare program. Do you have the same
concern?
Mr. Adcock. I can't speak to that. I'll have to get back to
you with that answer.
Senator Udall. Are there any others that are familiar with
that, the Universal----
[No verbal response.]
Senator Udall. OK.
Mr. Terzich, I'm concerned about the cybersecurity and
protection of information that could be transmitted in the
event of a cybersecurity attack. Can you talk about the
appropriate cyber hygiene procedures that should be in place to
protect business and consumers?
Mr. Terzich. Thank you, Senator. From a Zebra perspective,
we principally deal with enterprise B-to-B business, and a big
part of the planning and the rollout of IoT solutions is a
conjoined effort between the enterprise customer and our
organization. A lot of our devices, as similarly mentioned in
some prior conversation--a lot of our devices are generating
information that is transmitted, and analytical data is shared
over the broadband infrastructure.
So, for us, it's imperative that we design, in cooperation
with the enterprise customer, the appropriate security measures
to prevent cybersecurity issues. We have some of the world's
largest customers that have a very high degree of interest in
this particular area.
On the consumer side, I do see and I do recognize the
proliferation of IoT devices will result in more encroachment
opportunities if there isn't some form of certification and/or
regulation for some of those devices. We've seen too many
examples now of devices that become a portal for some
wrongdoing, and I do think that there has to be some more
controls imparted on the device manufacturers as part of that
network.
Senator Udall. Thank you to all of you for your testimony.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Udall.
Senator Duckworth.
STATEMENT OF HON. TAMMY DUCKWORTH,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS
Senator Duckworth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank the Chair and Ranking Member for today's
hearing, and I also want to thank our witnesses for
participating in this very important conversation.
Today, in the 21st Century, approximately 1.1 million
people in Illinois are without access to broadband, and 1.2
million people have access to only one wire provider, and
another 368,000 don't even have wired Internet providers where
they live. Frankly, we have children who can't do their
homework because of the lack of access.
Mr. Terzich, it's such a pleasure to have you here today
representing Zebra Technologies, headquartered in Lincolnshire.
I understand that Zebra's work in the healthcare sector
provides smartphone platforms that provide a network of
healthcare facilities in the Midwest to facilitate faster,
better information sharing, and also response to individual
patient care.
I know you've talked a little bit about the logistics part
of your work, but I'd love to focus a little bit more on the
healthcare side. About an hour south of where you're located is
Edward Hines, Jr., VA Hospital, where I go to get my
healthcare. It's operating a virtual ICU that provides
continuous monitoring of veterans receiving ICU care throughout
the entire region. They also offer outpatient care to satellite
clinics, including six CBOC community-based outpatient clinics,
via telehealth equipment so these patients don't have to be
located in the Chicagoland area. They can be anywhere in
Illinois, Manteno, or any place like that.
Can you discuss how Zebra's smartphone platforms work and
how this type of technology can provide more efficient and
better quality government services, such as by our VA
hospitals?
Mr. Terzich. Thank you, Senator, for the question. The
healthcare segment--for the record, the healthcare segment for
our business is the fastest growing segment that we have in our
business. It has principally been driven off of the fact that,
by and large, the healthcare value chain, if you will--supply
chain, value chain--is still one of the most inefficient,
error-fraught value chain that there is in the marketplace. So
healthcare providers, both at the VA level and at the private
sector, have been turning to more IoT-based solutioning.
The challenges of healthcare are many. The patient safety
initiative has been a very viable one. We use a lot of our
mobile computing IoT solutions to do a positive patient bedside
application of medicine to avoid catastrophic errors or
misapplication of meds so it improves the patient safety
initiative.
There's a critical need in healthcare across the network of
finding available equipment. It's no longer sufficient to know
where equipment exists in a hospital. You need to know that
that equipment is staged and ready to be applied. So hospitals
are using dynamic workflow to get better utilization out of
equipment, ensuring the right equipment is in the right
surgical centers at the right time.
Mr. Adcock had mentioned earlier there is a growing--we see
a growing interest by the private sector and by the VA to push
more healthcare to the home. That's principally based on a
number of reasons. There's a drive for better patient
satisfaction, but there's also a significant push to lower the
cost of healthcare, which is a challenge in and of itself here
in the United States.
Senator Duckworth. Thank you. Can you talk a little bit
also about other potential applications in healthcare that
maybe are more future-based, beyond just where you are now? As
you said, it's a growing sector. It can bring down healthcare
costs. But I just think of the myriad of applications, for
example, for patients in rural communities who can't get to a
large hospital and being able to direct them to the kind of
care that they need or to get the care to them.
Mr. Terzich. The home healthcare space is growing. The
satellite network care application is growing as well. So
hospitals are forming smaller satellite locations where the
exchange of information--they bridge some of the distance that
patients have to travel in order to get some form of in-
hospital healthcare--is a growing area.
You had mentioned earlier the Edward Hines Hospital. We're
doing a lot of work now, a lot of exploratory work, where they
are optimizing the workflow of a surgical center. The idea of
turning the surgical center over more frequently is no
different than turning airplanes off of a gate more quickly.
You have high-priced equipment, you have high-priced
caregivers, and how do they stage equipment, stage the surgical
teams in an appropriate way to move more patients through,
increase patient safety, get greater utilization of assets.
Senator Duckworth. Thank you so much.
I yield back.
Senator Wicker. Thank you, Senator Duckworth.
Mr. Adcock, in your testimony, you say that mobile
broadband has worked for the remote patient monitoring pilot
program, but, quote, ``as telehealth grows and additional
services are available in the home, a more flexible fixed
solution will be necessary.'' What do you mean by that and why?
Mr. Adcock. I think that some of the issues that we run
into with mobile technology--and thank you for the question.
Some of the issues that we've run into with mobile technology
is around the type of materials homes are built around. So if
you have a tin roof, if you have a tin mobile home, we have
some issues with signal getting in from a cellular standpoint.
So being able to have access to different reliable means that
aren't affected by the type of home, aren't affected by
weather, aren't affected by line of sight, is extremely
important to us.
As we connect with patients across the state and the
telehealth grows across the country, we need to be able to
get--we need to be able to deliver healthcare where and when
you need it, and the only way to do that is to have reliable
service, whether that's fixed service, whether that's mobile
service, that is more reliable and more available and faster.
Any and all of those are important to us as we try to deliver
healthcare.
Senator Wicker. Well, how realistic is that? Wouldn't more
reliable mobile be a little more realistic than fixed, in terms
of actually our ability to get it done?
Mr. Adcock. In patients' homes, absolutely, for sure.
Senator Wicker. Let me ask you, Ms. Siefer. A number of us
have stressed the Universal Service Fund. In my opening
statement, I said the FCC needs to take steps to ensure that
this provides adequate and predictable support. At the current
rate, where are we going to be 5 years from now or even 10
years from now, at the current rate of deployment of broadband
coverage?
Ms. Siefer. So the current rate is too slow, in terms of
the deployment itself and the speed of what it is they're
deploying. So if you look at the different Federal programs,
they're not all 25-3. Some of them are 10-1. So we're putting
Federal money into new infrastructure that's only 10-1.
Senator Wicker. OK. Well, help us out here. Is this a
measurement?
Ms. Siefer. Correct.
Senator Wicker. A measurement of coverage, which is
technical and which we understand a little bit about. You said
that--in your testimony, you said that 39 percent of rural
Americans lack access to broadband service, and that's if you
measure it at----
Ms. Siefer. At 25-3.
Senator Wicker.--at 25 up and 3 down.
Ms. Siefer. Yes, sir.
Senator Wicker. Now, as I understand it, that's going to
change to 25 down and 1 up? Is that right?
Ms. Siefer. The current recommendation of the FCC is to
change it, but it has not changed yet.
Senator Wicker. If that changes, what would that 39 percent
become? I guess it would be a better looking figure.
Ms. Siefer. It's a better looking figure, but it hasn't
changed anybody's life, no.
Senator Wicker. Well, let me ask the rest of you. At the
current rate, are we expanding service at any rate that's going
to get us where we need to be 5 years from now, 10 years from
now? Would anybody like to comment on that?
Mr. Armitage.
Mr. Armitage. On the wireless side, absolutely. On the
wired side, probably less so. This is very dependent upon the
availability of wireless spectrum, but our ability to deploy
new wireless technologies that deliver high speed to remote
areas is extraordinary. There are two new technologies coming
out right now, this year, called LTE, NB, and LTE Cat M1, which
are transforming the industrial Internet of Things and bringing
connectivity to remote areas through the existing LTE network,
that, frankly, is the most important thing probably that's
happened in the last 10 years, in my experience in the
industrial IoT space. So the world is changing quickly on the
wireless side.
Senator Wicker. I believe you had a recommendation in your
testimony, Mr. Armitage, that incentives need to change. Would
you explain what you meant by that?
Mr. Armitage. I don't believe that was in my testimony. I
believe the oil and gas industry has every incentive in the
world, driven by low commodity prices, to reduce operating
expenses, and that they are acting quickly to streamline their
business process and leveraging industrial IoT to do it.
Senator Wicker. All right. Thank you.
I think we now go back to Senator Markey.
Senator Markey, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD MARKEY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS
Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, very much.
The Internet of Things could also be considered the
Internet of Threats. It has a dual personality, and it is
absolutely essential that we provide protections for
appropriate cybersecurity and data security to be built into
these devices. As many as 50 billion IoT devices are projected
to be in our pockets and homes by the year 2020. Cybersecurity
will continue to pose a direct threat to economic prosperity,
privacy, and our Nation's security. That's why I introduced the
Cyber Shield Act, which would create a voluntary cybersecurity
certification program for IoT devices.
The Cyber Shield Act will establish an advisory committee
of cybersecurity experts from academia, industry, consumer
advocacy communities, and the public to create cybersecurity
benchmarks for IoT devices, such as baby monitors, cameras,
cell phones, laptops, and tablets. The IoT manufacturers can
then voluntarily certify that their products meet those
industry standards, the leading cybersecurity and data security
benchmarks, and display this certification to the public. The
program will both reward manufacturers adhering to best
practices and assure that consumers can reliably identify the
most secure products.
For each witness, do you believe that a program like this
will help to improve our devices' cybersecurity?
Mr. Adcock.
Mr. Adcock. Again, I think that with the programs that
we're using, we make sure that the data is encrypted. But, yes,
anything that we can do to increase the security standards
would be greatly appreciated from a healthcare standpoint.
Senator Markey. Great.
Mr. Armitage.
Mr. Armitage. In a word, no.
Senator Markey. Please explain.
Mr. Armitage. The pace of sophistication of the bad actors
is extraordinarily fast, probably can outstrip any regulatory
standards that we could put in place, and, in fact, those well
defined standards may provide a bull's eye for the bad actors
rather than the objective, which is to provide a shield. So I
would suggest that, at least in the industrial sector, the
industries have tremendous incentive to secure all ends of
every piece of telemetry, and they are doing that aggressively,
and, literally, week by week, month by month, they are evolving
their sophistication.
Senator Markey. Of course, the problem is not the ones who
are doing it. The problem is the ones who aren't doing it.
That's the problem. So by giving a special status to those who
are doing it, it essentially is saying to consumers, it's
saying to the world, well, here's a whole crowd over here
that's changing this thing, and they're not spending the money,
and that could be half of all of the entities that we're
talking about.
Mr. Armitage. And I don't focus on the consumer space, in
all fairness. I focus strictly on B-to-B. So in the business
space, those companies will not be selling products for very
long if they don't secure their products.
Senator Markey. Right. They won't be, but the public should
know. They can see it on a car. They can see it on energy star.
They can see, you know, what gets a good rating and what
doesn't, so you could vie for the rating, at least, to say for
this past year they were in the ball park. But it doesn't last
forever, an energy star rating. But you don't see any merit in
that at all, Mr. Armitage?
Mr. Armitage. I think the challenge is that standards are
evolving----
Senator Markey. I appreciate that. I'm not saying it lasts
forever, but for the duration of time that we establish it,
you've got it, you know, and if you don't keep it up, then----
Mr. Armitage. I absolutely hear you, and I support the
notion of creating standards, as long as we understand that
they're very transient.
Senator Markey. Right, but they're very transient in every
area. It's like--if you have no standards, then the only person
that ultimately gets hung is the consumer. They don't know
anything. They're just assuming that some CEO that's trying to
squeeze out a few extra bucks for their pocket, you know, and
they don't want to spend the money on improving their security
is actually concerned about them when it's only crocodile tears
that are coming out of their eyes. So we want them to adopt an
RSA standard. We want them to adopt a top standard.
Mr. Hassinger, I'm going to run out of time here. What do
you think?
Mr. Hassinger. I sure acknowledge that there is a need for
standards. Specifically to the Shield Act, I can't speak to it.
I would need to come back to you with----
Senator Markey. But the concept of having some information
out there that people can rely upon?
Mr. Hassinger. I support that standards are set, as I say.
To go further than that, I actually need to come back to you
with more of a thorough response.
Senator Markey. Right.
Mr. Terzich, the industry participant, we just voluntarily
put up that they're actually complying with the standard. What
do you think?
Mr. Terzich. I think in the B-to-C space, it would
certainly be additive and helpful. It would deter, but not
prevent, as we know. I think there will be and there is an
expectation of a proliferation of devices on a go-forward
basis, and there are other complicating factors associated with
deterrence, including, for the consumer, the home network in
and of itself and other forces and other factors.
Senator Markey. One of the standards would be that as the
security evolves that it improves over time with patches, that
that company is going to be patching as they see it, and that's
the standard they're going to adopt. What do you think about
that?
Ms. Siefer. I would just ask that within that, there also
be the education of the consumer so that they understand how to
use it.
Senator Markey. But how about if you're meeting the
standard, that you make it--you're allowed to make it public,
and that you're going to be updating.
Ms. Siefer. Yes, because, as we know, if folks aren't
comfortable--if they think that their data is going to be
stolen, if anything is going to be stolen from them, if they're
scared, they're not going to participate in the IoT.
Senator Markey. I got you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Wicker. Thank you.
Let me just ask Ms. Siefer this about the Commission's Form
477 data collection process. Can you share your views on how
the Form 477 data collection process can be modernized to
improve our understanding of where broadband coverage is not
adequate to support IoT technologies?
Ms. Siefer. We need to know who has broadband and where.
Currently, the Form 477--if a provider is serving one
individual in a census block, that census block is good, which
we all know is particularly problematic in rural areas, because
if you have a large census block and one person has coverage,
we're getting an inaccurate picture.
So we need to narrow it down much smaller than a census
block, and we also need to know the speeds at which--because
right now, they have these very unusual, doesn't kind of make
sense, blocks of speeds. But rather, we need to be able to look
at what speeds are actually being offered by the providers and
know that that's what's available in those areas.
The one extra thing that nobody wants to talk about is
cost. It's not part of Form 477 discussions, generally, because
the providers are really uncomfortable sharing what they are
charging the consumer. So a bigger issue that's kind of out
there, that's probably not going to be addressed by Form 477,
is that we need to know what the cost of broadband is for the
consumer.
Senator Wicker. Does the Form 477 answer your census block
concern?
Ms. Siefer. Not currently, no.
Senator Wicker. So you think that needs to be fixed?
Ms. Siefer. And that is one that is very fixable.
Senator Wicker. How do we fix that?
Ms. Siefer. The providers need to be telling us at a
smaller level and/or more accurately. We cannot say that it's
OK that they tell us a census block--that they have coverage in
that census block if only one person has coverage.
Senator Wicker. Who's going to decide how narrowly to
divide those blocks up?
Ms. Siefer. The FCC has the authority to decide that.
Senator Wicker. On this 25 down and 3 up and 10 down and 1
up measure of broadband speeds, what broadband speeds does one
need to currently operate IoT technologies?
Ms. Siefer. So that's a hugely--the answer varies massively
by the technology and by the individual who's using the
technology. So, as mentioned earlier, as video becomes more
common within the health industry, and we are then wanting that
patient in their home to use that video with their health
providers, 10-1 is insufficient, but we're not at a point where
everybody needs video, currently. But we all shouldn't be
making decisions about what our situation is now. We as a
country need to be planning for the future.
Senator Wicker. Does anyone else want to engage in the
issue about what speeds are adequate now in terms of operating
IoT technologies?
[No verbal response.]
Senator Wicker. No volunteers? One other thing.
Ms. Siefer, you say we don't currently have a program to
address cost. What do you advocate?
Ms. Siefer. So we don't currently have data that tells us
what it costs for someone to have broadband in their home. If
you even do a quick online search, what you'll be able to find
is an introductory price from a provider at that particular
address, and you might be able to find what their regular cost
is. And, sometimes, if you call the provider, they'll tell you
what the regular cost is. But they don't always, and you can't
go online right now and find a map that tells us if it's more
expensive here, it's least expensive here, and these are the
different price points. So that is something that would need to
be legislated. That is not--the FCC is never going to tell the
providers----
Senator Wicker. Do they have the authority?
Ms. Siefer. They have the authority, but I don't know that
they have the political interest.
Senator Wicker. So administration in and administration
out, Democrat, Republican?
Ms. Siefer. No, none of them.
Senator Wicker. They have not done so. Would you advocate
legislation?
Ms. Siefer. It would have to be legislation.
Senator Wicker. Does anyone wish to take issue with that?
[No verbal response.]
Senator Wicker. Well, thank you all for your testimony. I
think it has raised a lot of questions that need to be looked
at, but I think we're considerably better off having had your
testimony, and thank you for working with us and spending the
time.
Now, I have to make an announcement before we close. I
would like to enter into the record a letter from the
Competitive Carriers Association, which underscores the
importance of expanding high-speed, reliable Internet
connectivity to rural areas to advance the Internet of Things
in these communities. We'll do that without objection.
[The letter referred to follows:]
Competitive Carriers Association
November 7, 2017
Hon. Roger Wicker, Chairman,
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the
Internet,
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Brian Schatz, Ranking Member,
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the
Internet,
U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Wicker and Ranking Member Schatz:
Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) commends the Subcommittee
for holding today's hearing on the use and benefits of the Internet of
Things (IoT) in rural areas and respectfully asks that this letter be
added to the hearing record. CCA's members serve many rural and remote
parts of our country and understand how providing mobile broadband
services in these areas is fundamental to providing consumers,
businesses, public safety officials, health professionals, farmers and
others with the latest advances in IoT. It is important to note,
however, the innovations discussed at today's hearing will not be
possible without robust network connectivity. Coverage and access to a
network are the beginnings of all things IoT.
IoT is transforming every sector of America: healthcare, education,
finance, agriculture, transportation, public safety and commerce. In
fact, rural Americans stand to benefit most from these revolutionary
innovations, and are today early adopters of the latest technologies.
New innovations will help support continued investment in networks in
rural areas as business models built on a ``river of pennies'' approach
aggregate scale economies from thousands of new connections. However,
this future is far from certain, and absent policy decisions to
preserve and expand mobile broadband in rural America, the future of
IoT in rural areas will be limited.
Universal Service
Congress created the Universal Service Fund to support reasonably
comparable services in urban and rural areas. In today's increasingly
connected world, those services must include ubiquitous mobile
broadband services. With the support of bipartisan and steadfast
leadership from this Committee, the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) is moving forward with Phase II of the Mobility Fund.
Importantly, the FCC is collecting updated and more reliable mobile
coverage data to determine eligible areas based on a map that should
more closely resemble consumers' on-the-ground experiences. CCA
appreciates this Committee's support and ongoing oversight of Mobility
Fund II as it is implemented to preserve and expand mobile services
today and lays the foundation for the future of 5G. Next generation
networks will power untold innovations and are key to unleashing IoT
technologies in rural areas, and Congress should continue work to
ensure that the high cost areas connected through USF support, combined
with private investments, become and remain served.
Streamlining Deployment
Today, the mobile broadband infrastructure deployment process is
fraught with unnecessary hurdles and delays that frustrate deployments
and increase costs across the country. To support expanded IoT
connections, Congress should champion policies that promote investment
and streamline unnecessary hurdles through increased certainty
regarding the facility siting process and timelines for application
review. Siting is particularly challenging when seeking to deploy on
Federal lands and facilities, where deployment is often necessary to
serve rural areas. CCA supports legislative efforts to streamline the
process and provide increased certainty, including the bipartisan
``Streamlining Permitting to Enable Efficient Deployment of Broadband
Infrastructure Act of 2017'' or the ``SPEED Act'' (S. 1988), as well as
the Senate-passed ``Making Opportunities Available for Mobile Broadband
Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless
Act'' or the ``MOBILE NOW'' Act (S. 19). Advancing and enacting these
and other legislative efforts will promote mobile broadband deployment
to keep pace with IoT proliferation.
Spectrum
Consumers have become accustomed to ubiquitous service even as
increasingly the ``last mile'' technology is wireless. In addition to
physical infrastructure, mobile broadband depends on the invisible
airwaves that carry ever-growing amounts of data. Access to finite
spectrum resources, including in rural America, is critical to keeping
up with consumers' insatiable demand for data services and will be
further strained as carriers work to deploy 5G next-generation
technologies. These services, including IoT, require competitive
carriers to have access to low-, mid-, and high-band spectrum. As the
Federal government is the largest holder of spectrum, incentivizing
opportunities to reallocate Federal spectrum for commercial mobile use
will help support exponentially growing uses. Legislative initiatives
such as the bipartisan ``Advancing Innovation and Widespread Access to
Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum Act'' or the ``AIRWAVES Act'' (S. 1682)
facilitate greater spectrum access while also supporting deployment in
unserved and underserved areas using a portion of auction proceeds to
expand services.
Mobile networks are a key economic driver, and connecting Americans
through new IoT technologies and innovations has the potential to
improve quality of life for every citizen. Policymakers must ensure
rural consumers are not left behind. CCA thanks the Subcommittee for
its leadership on these important issues, and looks forward to
continued engagement. We welcome any questions or comments on this
timely topic.
Sincerely,
Steven K. Berry,
President and CEO.
CC: The Honorable John Thune, Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science,
and Transportation
The Honorable Bill Nelson, Ranking Member, Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
Senator Wicker. The hearing record will remain open for two
weeks. During this time, Senators are asked to submit any
questions for the record. Upon receipt, the witnesses are
requested to submit their written answers to the Committee as
soon as possible, with all deliberate speed.
If anyone has any reason why we should not conclude the
hearing, speak now or forever hold your peace.
[No verbal response.]
Senator Wicker. The hearing is now adjourned, and we thank
the witnesses.
[Whereupon, at 11:46 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Hon. Bill Nelson, U.S. Senator from Florida
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. The Internet of
Things has great potential to keep American industry competitive and
productive and to keep Americans healthy.
I am looking forward to learning about the latest technological
developments and what they are doing for rural America. But I am also
aware that the Internet of Things cannot reach its full potential
without robust Internet connectivity.
We also need to remember that the promise of the Internet of Things
must be balanced with real concerns about privacy and the security of
our networks. We should all work together to make sure the great
potential of the Internet of Things does not fall victim to a lack of
foresight and protections for these systems and the consumers and
industries that will come to rely on them in the future.
______
Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Tom Udall to
Michael Terzich
Question. During our discussion in Committee, you stated that
customers of your company, typically enterprise customers, will work
with you to provide the particular cybersecurity needs. Is there a list
of common requests you receive from the enterprise customers?
Answer. Zebra has an internal cross-functional Information Security
Council that works with Zebra customers to answer questions about our
security architecture. Zebra's Information Security Council membership
includes technical, legal and business leaders that respond to specific
product security questions.
Customers typically want to confirm that Zebra has formal policies
and standards covering information asset restrictions, information
asset classification and management, cryptographic controls, access
controls, legal and regulatory compliance programs, operations and data
systems security and facility security. Zebra provides assurances
regarding the regular testing of key controls, systems, policies and
procedures related to our security programs.
In addition, customers often request a review of the Service
Organization Control 2 (SOC2) report for Zebra's production data
centers which documents various organizational controls related to
security, availability and processing integrity.
Finally, customers also seek confirmation that Zebra has
appropriate access controls, administrative and technical measures to
maintain the confidentiality of Customer's data including any
Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
The following are common high-level requests received from
enterprise customers:
Details on Zebra's use of encryption technologies.
How physical-layer security is implemented in products.
Details on the methods Zebra deploys for real-time detection
and prevention of security-related incidents.
Details on Zebra's compliance with international data
privacy regulations.
Specific information on policies related to the regular
auditing of security controls. Examples of actual questions
from customers by subject matter:
Network Security
Describe your network architecture.
What is your firewall infrastructure?
Is the network monitored 24/7?
Is there proper security testing procedures to network
infrastructure?
Is your network properly secured (two step authentication,
secure gateway, restricted network access etc.)?
What are password standards?
Have you implemented commercial software solutions that
address virus/malware related issue?
How is remote access to your network monitored and
protected?
Are appropriate user account restrictions in place to only
allow employees to access information needed to complete their
job duties?
What mechanisms are in place to log, store and review all
significant activity?
Are server builds standardized and hardened to a level
appropriate to the environment in which they operate?
What procedures are in place for remaining up to date with
system and security fixes, performing adequate testing and
applying to production servers?
Do you adhere to industry standards?
Do you comply with applicable laws and regulations related
to security and privacy?
Does Zebra maintain insurance that covers security
incidents?
Data Handling
How do you handle storage/transmission/use of personal
information?
How is one customer's data isolated from the data of other
customers?
Are databases encrypted?
Where applicable, is Zebra PCI compliant?
Backup/Disaster Recovery Plan
How do you ensure ongoing service in the event that a system
fails?
What is your incident response procedure?
Are all incidents logged?
Managing Threats & Vulnerabilities
How do you ensure that security measures are up to date?
How are system patch and vulnerability identification
managed?
Are internal audits of information security systems present?
Will customer information be stored outside of U.S.?
Is third party network access restricted?
Are third party security assessments performed?
Personnel Access Security
How are security policies communicated within the
organization?
How are confidentiality and security responsibilities
addressed with employees, vendors, and consultants?
Are pre-employment background checks performed?
Are individuals subject to disciplinary action for violation
of security requirements?
Are staff only allowed to access the minimum amount of
confidential information required to fulfill their job?
Is there a security awareness program and is it included in
employee training?
What is required to access these applications (ID, Password,
Token)?
System Management
How is security administered on Zebra systems?
Does Zebra employ methods to detect and prevent malicious
and/or accidental changes?
[all]
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