Tech Summit Debates Best Solutions to Expand Broadband

The Minority Media and Telecom Council brought together government officials, technology leaders and experts to discuss the future of the Internet among people of color at the “Broadband and Social Justice Summit” at Howard University late last week.

As the deadline for the Federal Communications Commission to issue the national broadband plan approaches in early March, MMTC brought dozens of technology, civil rights and educational leaders together to continue the dialogue over increasing Internet use and access.

Commissioner Blair Levin, Executive Director of the FCC’s Broadband Initiative opened up the conference. Levin, who returned to the FCC last year to help coordinate the development of the broadband plan, said one way to help increase broadband adoption is to think more like the banking industry, which maximizes its services online, therefore increasing their efficiency and offers consumers more options.

Several other people directly involved in creating the FCC’s plan also spoke, including Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, and Larry Strickling, Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Director, National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Nicol Turner-Lee, Vice President and Director of Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies,  spoke about the importance of defining the role that people of color play in online spaces.

“Broadband needs to be woven into the fabric of what we do,” Turner-Lee said, despite the fact that existing research shows a lack of participation by people of color in civic life, along with the decline of urban public schools, leaving students without the ability to read, write, and compute. “We can’t afford to have students who can’t participate in digital literacy.”

Robert Steele, President of the National Association of Black County Officials, agreed, noting that the costs of expanding broadband access now are small compared to the future costs of caring for those who cannot find work or take advantage of other opportunities because they aren’t online.

“We’re going to pay for the people who don’t get broadband in welfare, Medicare and Medicaid costs,” said Steele. The panelists, which included almost twenty think tank, nonprofit and educational leaders, shared a variety of options for increasing broadband access, including extending discounted service to homes where children are eligible for reduced or free school lunches, or extending the Universal Service Fund, which currently gives low income households discounted phone service, to broadband service.

What are some ways you think broadband access can be increased?