Nuanced Accountability, Partnerships Key to Broadband Adoption, FCC Summit Told

"The FCC can’t do it all,” said NARUC President Philip Jones. “As long as I serve in the leadership of NARUC, we will devote the resources to [Section] 706 -- to this joint committee -- to make this happen,” he said of timely broadband deployment. “It has to be a partnership.” Deployment is only part of the solution, said FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, and the message of “Field of Dreams” doesn’t always apply: Just because you build it, doesn’t mean they will come. “You really have to do some aggressive outreach” so that everyone understands broadband is “the gateway to prosperity, to health, and really to a better life,” he said. Pai praised Comcast’s “Internet Essentials” program, which offers basic Internet at $10 per month to families whose children qualify for free or reduced price school lunches. That program “goes a long way” to getting people connected who otherwise couldn’t afford it, he said. But “there’s still a lot of work left to do."

"We need to keep focusing and working on increasing broadband adoption rates in the U.S.,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. In the last four years, broadband adoption in the U.S. has gone from about 60 percent to about 70 percent, he said, but that’s not good enough -- it needs to be 100 percent. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said in a prepared video statement that the digital divide and poor digital literacy are “a looming crisis.” The Internet is “not a luxury,” she said. “If you don’t have access, you're simply at a competitive disadvantage.” More than 30 million households haven’t adopted broadband at home, and it’s important to understand why, said NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling. NTIA surveys say the primary reason consumers give for not subscribing is lack of interest or need. The next most common reason is high cost, and after that is a lack of an adequate computer, he said. “We can’t solve the adoption gap by focusing on only one of the barriers; a successful program must address all of these major barriers in a comprehensive fashion."

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said the push for broadband deployment and adoption is “a very noble endeavor that can, does and will improve the everyday lives of many Americans and I certainly hope very soon, eventually all Americans.” McDowell also praised the notion of accountability: “We need to observe what trends, what factors have gone into the success, and make sure we allow those to continue,” he said, noting the “vital” efforts of industry. “We want to make sure we're not in your way -- that we're supporting these [private sector] efforts,” he added.

Grassroots outreach works, telco executives said in a Thursday panel. Comcast’s strategy has been to partner with anyone and everyone, said Corporation Vice President-External and Government Affairs Bret Perkins. “We have worked with all of national partners and local partners,” he said, adding it’s become a mission of employees to “connect the dots” for low-income families. The company is realizing it can’t just “throw a lot of advertising at it,” he said. “Grassroots worked,” said ToledoTel Chief Operating Officer Dale Merten. “We started going door to door.” He described efforts to increase broadband subscription in the state of Washington. Spending marketing money hadn’t helped, he said. But without NTIA’s funding, ToledoTel would have never imagined forming a program as successful as it has, he said.

Assurance Wireless customers in Ohio and Massachusetts, part of Lifeline, will soon be marketed a mobile broadband USB device developed by Virgin Mobile, said Sprint Nextel Director and Senior Counsel Elaine Divelbliss. “We're looking to sign up 10,000 subscribers in the two states,” she said, offering four products to gauge the price of the device as well as price of the service. Availability, access to a device, relevance, education and affordability lead to broadband adoption, said Frontier Communications Ohio General Manager Dave Davidson. People look more and more not to Frontier just as a provider of broadband but broadband solutions, he said. Frontier is looking to segment its customers and identify how to be relevant to them, he said. All telco executives spoke of a desire to assess early on and use data to shape these programs.

D.C. Public Service Commission Policy Advisor Cary Hinton asked whether there was a business case for promoting broadband adoption. He pointed out that conditional mergers and national government efforts pushed some of these efforts described. “Internet Essentials is clearly much bigger than previous programs,” replied Comcast’s Perkins. “We're kind of in a ‘brave new world’ stage around that.” Wireless programs have illustrated that well and are just beginning to get significant data, he said. Sprint is still figuring out whether there’s a business case or whether it would need to be tied to the national Lifeline work, said Divelbliss: “That’s exactly what we are hoping to learn from the pilot.” “Today likely not,” said Merton of forming a feasible business case, but he pointed out that customers are happier, more engaged and the adoption works. The FCC isn’t the only regulatory body that has glommed onto Section 706 of the Telecom Act as a way to justify its authority over the Internet. State regulators cited the provision as a reason for them to be just as involved. Section 706 says that each state commission shall encourage deployment of advanced telecom capabilities on a reasonable and timely basis, said Indiana Commissioner Larry Landis. “That charge is sweeping and empowering, both for the FCC and the state commissions,” he said. “In its wisdom, Congress saw the necessity of the FCC and the states working closely together."

Government agencies should find the programs with documented successes, and disseminate those best practices to those who operate local programs, Strickling said. NTIA is about to release a broadband adoption toolkit that lays out steps for effective adoption efforts and provides “concrete, field tested approaches to leaping the barriers to adoption,” he said, and DigitalLiteracy.gov shares curriculum and practical information about how to support new users and broadband. It’s important to ensure that approach to digital literacy training gets applied to other programs, like Lifeline, he said. One goal should to be to develop a “multiplier effect” in these projects, where trainees “feel an obligation” to train family members and others in their community, he said.