Clinton Blasts 'Economic Impediment' of Bad Internet, Eyes Fixes Once in White House

“We connect every home and business in America to high-speed internet and we do it on as fast a timescale as possible, no later than the early 2020s, because every year we waste means we leave people behind and left out in a way that is heartbreaking,” Clinton said Tuesday at a Galvanize tech incubator office in Denver. “We still have lots of parts of our country, rural and urban, where you do not have access to high-speed internet. In fact, it’s spotty and it is an economic impediment. You know, I’ve traveled a lot around our country, and you can see what it means not to be connected to our global economy. … The lack of affordable high-speed broadband is a real barrier.”

Clinton compared the effort to electrification and repeatedly framed the broadband goals as part of a broader economic platform. “I think this is going to be one of the defining issues in this election,” she said. Most of the agenda was expected and part of statements and plans the campaign previously outlined during the primary season.

Initial reviews were positive. The campaign detailed the agenda in the course of a first and second fact sheet.

“We're encouraged that Hillary Clinton is making the internet's future a top priority in her campaign,” said Free Press President Craig Aaron. “Clinton makes a commitment to connect all Americans to fast and affordable broadband by 2020.” The agenda is “a strong roadmap to supporting the values of access, openness and opportunity for consumers around the world while balancing the needs to promote competition and innovation for American industry,” with no idea “as important as her commitment to connecting all Americans to affordable, high-speed broadband,” said Public Knowledge Vice President-Government Affairs Chris Lewis. “She continues the Obama administration’s support for strong net neutrality rules under Title II and opposes censorship online, in the style of the defeated Stop Online Piracy Act.” Clinton “proves that she gets it -- that our nation's ability to grow our economy and drive job creation is dependent on our ability to stay ahead of the curve in innovation,” TechNet CEO Linda Moore said. CompTIA President Todd Thibodeaux said the tech industry is "encouraged" and backs the broadband investment and wireless plans. The Coalition for Local Internet Choice said Clinton recognizes the importance of municipalities and local choice. “An impressive tech and innovation plan,” tweeted Kevin Werbach, professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a member of the Obama administration’s FCC transition team.

Some pressed Clinton to expand on the agenda. “We are pleased to see her support efforts to address the digital divide with programs like Lifeline and the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program,” Aaron said. “But the next president can and must do more to address the lack of broadband competition and affordability that prevents tens of millions of Americans from accessing this critical service. We urge the Clinton campaign to do more to recognize Americans' serious concerns about unchecked spying and surveillance. Rejecting the false choice between privacy interests and keeping Americans safe means committing to change the PATRIOT Act policies that have targeted innocent people for unwarranted surveillance. Unfortunately, her initiative lacks details on how a future Clinton administration would protect the privacy rights of everyday people.”

The agenda is “silent” on some policy areas, “particularly the need to modernize our tax code and advance global trade,” Moore said. “We will continue to engage with Secretary Clinton’s campaign to advocate for additional policy development in these and other areas.”

The fact sheets outline several key focuses for Clinton on tech and telecom policy, from telecom to patent overhaul to commercial data privacy to copyright. One area involved investing in “world-class” broadband infrastructure: “As President, she will finish the job of connecting every household in America to high-speed broadband, increase internet adoption, and help hook up anchor institutions so they can offer free WiFi to the public,” one fact sheet said. “Hillary will also take action to help America widely deploy 5G technology -- the next generation wireless service that will not only bring faster internet connections to underserved areas, but will enable the Internet of Things and a host of transformative technologies.”

As president, Clinton would direct “federal agencies to consider the full range of technologies as potential recipients -- i.e., fiber, fixed wireless, and satellite -- while focusing on areas that lack any fixed broadband networks currently” and would urge investment in the Connect America fund, Rural Utilities Service programs and the broadband stimulus funding the Obama administration provided earlier, the campaign said. It again referred to Clinton’s earlier idea of an infrastructure bank. It lauded the reduction of regulatory barriers and urged localities to look into “streamlining permitting processes, allowing nondiscriminatory access to existing infrastructure such as conduits and poles, pursuing 'climb once' policies to eliminate delays, or facilitating demand aggregation” and lauded localities embracing “dig once” deployment possibilities. Clinton backs the FCC’s expansion of Lifeline to broadband service and on E-rate, “will expand this concept to additional anchor institutions by investing new federal resources,” said the campaign. It said that “would enable recreation centers, public buildings like one-stop career centers, and transportation infrastructure such as train stations, airports, and mass transit systems, to access to high-speed internet and provide free WiFi to the public.”

Clinton “will enhance the efficient use of spectrum by accelerating the process of identifying underutilized bands, including ones now used by the federal government, that can become more valuable under revised regulatory regimes,” the campaign promised. “She will focus on the full range of spectrum use policies -- including new allocations for licensed mobile broadband, as well as unlicensed and shared spectrum approaches. She believes that creative uses of shared/non-exclusive uses of spectrum could unleash a new wave of innovation in wireless broadband technologies and the Internet of Things, much as WiFi did in the first generation of digital services.” Her administration would “dedicate federal research funding to test-bedding, field trials, and other public-private endeavors to speed the deployment of next generation wireless networks and a civic Internet of Things,” her campaign promised.

Clinton has long backed the concept of strong net neutrality rules and explicitly said she’s fine with the use of Communications Act Title II reclassification of broadband. “Hillary strongly supports the FCC decision under the Obama Administration to adopt strong network neutrality rules that deemed internet service providers to be common carriers under Title II,” the campaign affirmed. “These rules now ban broadband discrimination, prohibit pay-for-play favoritism, and establish oversight of 'interconnection' relationships between providers. Hillary would defend these rules in court and continue to enforce them.”

Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump hasn't commented on many telecom and tech positions. Telecom and media industry executives have overwhelmingly favored Clinton or earlier GOP Trump rivals in presidential fundraising (see 1606270078).