Grassroots Activists Debate How to Promote Community Broadband
One key to expanding municipal broadband is promoting “a progressive agenda on a state-by-state basis” and telling “a national progressive narrative,” said Progressive States Network Broadband Policy Advisor Fabiola Carrion. “You must consider it a utility,” she said of community broadband, comparing it to water and electricity. She spoke Wednesday afternoon as part of a Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) panel on the role of community broadband in growing local economies. MAG-Net is an initiative of the Center for Media Justice with more than 100 members. There are 54 U.S. cities that own citywide fiber networks and 79 that own citywide cable networks, the organization said in its panel announcement.
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Different state laws have come to restrict community broadband, Carrion said. Some are more extreme than others -- laws in Missouri and Texas ban municipal networks outright, she said. “Restrictions vary.” There have been fights in Minnesota, Georgia, Colorado and the Carolinas, she said. New York is working on a law that looks “pretty OK” but deserves a closer look, she added. Industry forces play a powerful part in encouraging these restrictive laws, she said. But national community broadband support exists, Carrion said. She described the FCC’s broadband efforts and ways these national forces may be able to help “ensure state legislators don’t get fooled by the big telcos."
The Center for Rural Strategies focuses on the challenge of outlying areas, Research Associate Edyael Casaperalta said. She coordinates the center’s Rural Broadband Policy Group. The FCC has shown a majority of the 19 million without fixed broadband live in rural areas, which is a “huge issue,” she said. “A third of the people in tribal communities don’t have access."
Many panelists spoke of how to get a community on board with broadband projects. “You must early on set benchmarks that are in the community’s interests,” said Danielle Chynoweth, Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center co-founder. Inclusive coalitions are crucial, she said. The Illinois initiative has worked to emphasize the role of women and African-Americans, the latter of which have been “systemically excluded” in the community, she said. The project isn’t just focused on the municipal and university spheres, she said. “Collaboration has not been easy,” she said. “But we have persisted.” Emphasizing the economic benefits is helpful, she added, describing how an economic development group came to save their work for that reason. “This conservative body became a key champion for our broadband project,” she said. Allied Media Projects Co-Director Diana Nucera called communications a “fundamental human right” and spoke of efforts in Detroit, where “our city government hasn’t really looked out for local interests,” she said. Detroit needs these investments to keep its younger population, she said.
MAG-Net members should advocate for community broadband and “advocate locally for the building of these networks,” Chynoweth said, emphasizing the “expertise” of members. There’s “urgent” need for municipal networks in unserved communities because there’s “no profit” or “business case” for private industry to close the gaps, Casaperalta said. Industry is less interested in providing basic telephone service due to shifts in technology, she said. She cautioned against “an environment where the telcos can just set the rules for themselves.” “It’s not just about having access to broadband services,” said panel moderator and MAG-Net coordinator Betty Yu. “It’s about owning the infrastructure.”