The Future of Local Internet Choice

I am honored to receive the National Champion for Local Internet Choice Award. And I am humbled to be recognized alongside the other award winners, each of whom have been remarkable leaders in the nationwide effort to give communities the power to decide their broadband futures. In the last three years, enormous progress has been made for local Internet choice.

But the battlefield is no longer the Federal Communications Commission and the courts, but state legislatures. The battle plan is for advocates for local Internet choice to bring every local mayor, city council, business, school, college, library, chamber of commerce and citizen together to convince state officials that for the future of those cities and towns and by extension, the state itself, localities must have the ability to determine their own broadband futures. Unless cities and towns can get predictable and affordable access to old-fashioned utility poles, building gigabit networks will be difficult and costly. A growing number of cities have built or are interested in building dark fiber networks and then leasing capacity on those networks to retail Internet service providers.

In closing, I’ll paraphrase just about every State of the Union address – “the state of local Internet choice is strong.” This is true despite the setback dealt by the 6th Circuit. Many challenges lay ahead, but so do many opportunities. If the past three years serve as precedent, I know that the passionate, knowledgeable and resilient advocates of this movement will overcome the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities. Let’s keep working together until every community can determine its own broadband needs without barriers. Thanks again for this wonderful honor and for all the support you have given Chairman Wheeler, the FCC and me for the past three years.

[Gigi Sohn is Counselor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission]