Internet Reclassification "A Detriment to Minority Communities"
Robert M. Spooney, executive director/CEO of the African American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida, has a new op-ed in the Sun-Sentinel titled, “Use Broadband As An Economic Equalizer.” Some highlights:
“In today's economy, broadband is an economic equalizer. It provides all users, regardless of race and income, with access to the same empowering opportunities. Yet despite the enormous empowering value of this technology, federal policymakers have failed to provide any assurance that misdirected regulation of this vital service will not occur. This will prove to be a detriment to minority communities.”
“The Federal Communications Commission is heading down a path toward heavily regulating an industry that has thrived with little regulation and that is now poised to provide wide-ranging economic relief during a challenging economic time. More troubling is the fact that the FCC is moving forward despite the pleas of 74 Democratic members of Congress, national labor unions, civil rights organizations and the nation's leading organizations of black and Hispanic elected officials.”
Read the full op-ed here.
More Misinformed Leaders
Because of a lack of regulation, broadband providers don't build into low income (regardless of ethnicity) areas unless it's on the way to somewhere they want to provide service or it's near a major city. They don't want to put services in an area where people are likely to constantly miss payments. Or if your community/town has plenty of money but lives far from existing infrastructure, you won't get it either.
If you want poor and/or rural areas to get broadband whether or not an ISP wants to bring it to you, then you should argue for common carrier status and regulation. Even today, there are communities that had to build telco co-ops to get basic phone service and internet, the big players REFUSED to bring the service to them.
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