Need for Partnerships to Be Key Recommendation of National Broadband Plan

A “fundamental” recommendation of the National Broadband Plan will be creation of “partnerships” between the government and the private and nonprofit sectors to bring down the cost of computers and monthly broadband service for the poor and to provide free training and applications to help people access education and employment information online, said Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan Tuesday at the Digital Inclusion Summit, co-hosted by the FCC. “The government can’t do it alone,” Donovan said. Tuesday’s summit included four of the five FCC commissioners and members of Congress. It came a week before formal unveiling of the National Broadband Plan by the FCC. The Tuesday meeting was also hosted by the Knight Foundation.

Donovan cited the work that local nonprofit groups like the Mid-Bronx Desperados did to revitalize one of the depressed urban areas in the U.S. He said the Bronx “was so desperate that we had neighborhoods that literally lost 75 percent of their population in 10 years. … Groups like the Mid-Bronx Desperados began, house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood, rebuilding that community."

The nation needs a similar effort to make broadband available nationwide, Donovan said. “Too often today we can predict the life outcomes of children by the ZIP Code they grow up in and that in America today is simply not right,” he said. “We must begin to remake those neighborhoods of the most concentrated poverty and segregation into neighborhoods of opportunity. … With broadband we have an opportunity to use HUD housing as a platform to drive a broad range of other outcomes. … With broadband, a child’s ability to learn is not limited solely by where their school is located or the resources available at that school. …… With broadband, seniors and persons with disabilities can be in control of their health care. Families can find better housing opportunities that they otherwise wouldn’t have known about. … People looking for jobs in this enormously difficult environment can find out where jobs are available and how to get them."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC will deliver the broadband plan to Congress as promised in seven days “or as the broadband team would put it -- 168 hours, 42 minutes and 16 seconds, not that they're counting.” Genachowski said the work the FCC has done is “truly unprecedented” and will result in “an ambitious and smart plan for U.S. global leadership in high-speed Internet that will create jobs and spur economic growth."

FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker said the U.S. must do more to promote broadband deployment. “The commission’s work has found that despite widespread deployment, nearly a third of American households have not embraced the broadband revolution,” she said. “We have found that like our diverse nation there are many different reasons why some choose not to adopt.” Public-private partnerships “can be a key path to working cooperatively towards common goals of digital inclusion,” she said. Commissioner Robert McDowell didn’t speak at the summit.

"Broadband is one of our generation’s most important challenges, primarily because it presents one of our most monumental opportunities,” said Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Universal broadband and the skills to use it can lower barriers of means and distance to help achieve a more equal opportunity for all Americans. It can provide the same level of education to a young student in Mountainair, N.M., as one in Northwest Washington, D.C. It can bring quality healthcare to men and women in extremely rural areas, without them having to drive several hours for a routine but essential screening."

Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said that in requiring a broadband plan from the FCC Congress’s intention was that the commission would not submit “just another agency report” with no longterm effect. “I wanted a real plan, one that was both pragmatic and aspirational,” said Markey, a senior member of the Commerce Committee. “Second, I wanted the FCC to deal with broadband, well, broadly -- a broad view is needed to factor in how this indispensable infrastructure of the future could be put to the task of tackling a range of national changes and priorities.” The plan also needs to assure “that affordable, high-speed Internet access reached all Americans and that we increased our subscribership levels across the board."

"It’s imperative that Congress and the FCC commit to a policy that will deliver broadband to all Americans,” said Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., a member of the Commerce Committee. “In Nebraska, because of aggressive rural telecom carriers … 90 percent of Nebraskans have access to broadband.” But only about half of them likely have access at speeds of 1 Mbps or higher, he said. “For schools, to access textbooks, videos, 200 kbps doesn’t work in today’s 21st Century economy."

The key will be using the Universal Service Fund to pay for broadband, Terry said. “If USF was eliminated, a Nebraskan living in a rural area would pay an additional $235.41 on average each year to receive basic telecommunications,” he said. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that a monthly retail rate could top $500 for a comparable broadband network if there was no mechanism for reimbursement.” Intercarrier compensation reform will also be a huge challenge, Terry said. “But it has to be done and I appreciate that you've taken that task."

Genachowski introduced Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., sponsor of the Broadband Affordability Act, which would direct the FCC to create a universal broadband adoption program similar to the USF’s Lifeline Assistance program. “You may have heard the rumors,” Genachowski said. We have been stealing your ideas.” “A Lifeline program for broadband will have significant tangible benefits for lower-income households … in urban areas,” said Matsui, a member of the Commerce Committee. “It will also greatly benefit consumers in rural areas as more rural telecom providers will build-out to unserved areas knowing that there will be more consumers able to afford their services."

Commissioner Michael Copps said he was pleased the FCC is focusing on broadband deployment, though he highlighted an issue which he said speaks to the complexity of the FCC’s task in writing a National Broadband Plan -- media diversity. “Even as Americans consumed 1.3 trillion hours of media in 2008, the production and distribution of essential news and information content has never been more in doubt,” Copps said. “The same hyper-speculation and consolidation that infected so much of our economy, coupled with an almost total lack of public interest oversight of our broadcast media, decimated newsrooms, brought pink slips to many thousands of journalists, put investigative journalism on the endangered species list, and replaced too much real news with too much glitzy infotainment and, to be frank, with an often dumbed down democratic dialogue."

The same thing can’t [be allowed to] happen to new media made possible by broadband, Copps said. “But it may be happening already,” he warned. “All players are not yet equal in the new digital age; all networks are not open and pulsing with the lifeblood of Internet freedom; and what happens to us on the Internet depends not just on where we choose to go, but where others would have us go."

Also speaking Tuesday were several people who say their lives have been affected by broadband. Rhonda Locklear, a housing specialist with the Lumbee Tribe in Pembroke, N.C., said her family only recently added a broadband connection at home. She said the textile industry there has disappeared and so have the jobs: “Without high-speed Internet we don’t stand a chance. … Without high-speed Internet, my son’s chances of a better future are at risk."

Garrison Phillips, 80, a writer and former actor from New York City, said he felt “lost” when he first tried to navigate the Internet, and turned to training from Older Adult Technology Services (OATS), a program available at YMCAs and senior centers in the city. “When I first retired I bought a brand new computer and a printer and I had time to write again,” he said. “I couldn’t maneuver, but fortunately I discovered OATS … which teaches the Internet for free.” Phillips said he’s on the road a week every month to take care of his 103-year-old mother. “In between time, I am in touch with her major caregiver, her doctor if need be, and members of her church who e-mail me that they have spoken with her, seen my mother that day, and she is doing just fine.”