Wednesday, October 9, 2019
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Innovation: Putting Broadband to Work
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Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted wasn’t surprised when an OH Department of Transportation report, released in late Sept, indicated that his state has valuable assets that can lead to broadband expansion. “Actually, it largely confirmed what we believed,” Lt Gov Husted said. “That the public infrastructure, particularly the rights of way, have value, and we need to leverage that value to extend broadband…to places that don’t presently have it.” Like most states, OH has been aware that a significant portion of its population, mostly in rural areas, has little to no access to high-speed Internet. But it wasn’t until the latest administration, led by Gov Mike DeWine (R-OH), that OH sent out an RFI to carve out a path to a statewide broadband policy and plan. After reviewing the results of the RFI, which garnered replies from more than 20 respondents, it’s now more than clear to Lt Gov Husted that OH must confront the challenge of convincing different parties, “who have no specific interest in working together,” to come to the same table in order to better society. Put another way, the state has no interest in competing with the private sector. “You might have a telecommunications company, you might have a data center company, a cloud services company, a utility, a local cable provider — all of these companies have the ability to help us solve the aggregate problem,” Husted said.
Lt Gov Husted said OH is working on a more accurate broadband coverage map, a goal that further underscores the importance of forming strong bonds with every relevant player. “What we need is for the private-sector providers to help us fill in those gaps [in coverage data] by providing that information,” Husted said. “Some of them will suggest that they can’t do it because it’s proprietary. But frankly, if you’re talking about infrastructure like that, I don’t really believe that it needs to be secretive. They should be very forthcoming with what they have done. And we hope to create a better partnership with them to do that.”
The seemingly interminable wait for the Court’s decision in Mozilla v. FCC is finally at an end. In its 186-page decision, the Court described how it considered economic concepts, arguments, and expert reports. It upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 Order but rejected its claimed preemption authority. As we have learned, the net neutrality debates will never die, but they may now change venue.
The rights enshrined in the First Amendment, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press, guide the Federal Communications Commission’s public interest standard, which must inform everything that we do. But the fact that those celebrated words were written into the Bill of Rights does not, in and of itself, guarantee that it will work as intended. The First Amendment is not self-executing. Preserving its guarantees requires the vigilance of regulators, the media, and the public alike. Ida B. Wells once said: “The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.” For its part, the FCC has an incredibly important role to play in supporting the First Amendment and preserving the freedoms it affirms. Namely, the FCC, by statute, is tasked with facilitating greater diversity in our national discourse. As the Supreme Court has stated, when considering the First Amendment, “the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public.”
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Of particular concern to me, then, is the persistent lack of diversity in broadcast media ownership, and among its rank and file. America’s broadcasters should look like America. Ownership sets the tone for a media outlet, and employees manage its day-to-day operations and provide its public face. Given the crucial role our media plays in informing the public, it is critical that it reflect the nation at large, both behind and in front of the camera, and that our local media also be reflective of the local communities it is bound to serve. These institutions should mirror the richness of our population and give expression to its diverse voices.
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Beyond ownership, the Commission must redouble its Equal Employment Opportunity efforts to ensure that broadcasters are seeking diverse employees. For 15 years, the Commission has had an open rulemaking proposing to continue a decades old data collection on the diversity of the broadcast workforce. And for 15 years, while we’ve been stuck in neutral, we’ve elicited zero visibility on whether station management and news teams reflect our communities. We cannot fully engage on this issue when our ability to understand the problem is compromised.
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
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Kevin Taglang
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