Tech-Centered Church Initiative Shows Support for AT&T/T-Mobile Merger

As part of the ongoing review of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, the National Black Church Initiative (NBCI) filed comments this week before the Federal Communications Commission in support of the $39 billion deal.

“The black church wants to ensure that we are heard on this most important merger,” said NBCI President Rev. Anthony Evans. “After doing our due diligence,” he went on to say, “analyzing and researching over 4,000 pieces of literature, some of which is not even in the public domain, we have concluded that the merger deserves our support during this critical time in our nation’s history and in light of the needs of black consumers and small businesses.”

NBCI is a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches from around the country, representing 15 denominations and boasting a membership of 15.7 million African Americans.  The organization’s central mission is “to eradicate racial disparities in healthcare, technology, housing and the environment” by “providing critical wellness information to all of its members, congregants, churches and the public.

NBCI outlined four points as the basis of its support.  Namely, this merger:

1. Allows entrepreneurs and ISPs opportunities to create innovative and profitable business models while upholding important net neutrality safeguards that allow consumers to access the lawful content of their choosing; run the applications and services of their choice, subject only to the needs of law enforcement; connect to networks their choice of non-harmful legal devices; and enjoy competition among network providers, application and service providers and content providers.
2. Enables small businesses to “have access to the Internet and other essential telecommunication services to remain relevant, buoyant, and successful,” and allows such businesses to grow and flourish at a competitive rate;
3. Creates incentives for increased wireless broadband adoption, particularly by low and middle income people, by making spectrum allocation more efficient and following the trend of reducing the prices of wireless services; and
4. Facilitates efforts of the Church to provide “both moral authority and social services” by improving the telecommunications infrastructure upon which the Church relies to communicate with members and the communities they serve.

Rev. Mark McCleary, Chair of the NBCI Minister Alliance says, “This has not been an easy experience – there have been lengthy discussions on the pros and cons of this issue.

“I truly believe that this journey represents a maturing of the black church and an enhanced ability to protect our members from adverse economic developments.  We have always understood the importance of shaping our destiny and we will not allow external forces to begin now.  Our endorsement of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger reaffirms our primary role as an advocate for our member churches and congregants.”

About the Author
Navarrow Wright is the CTO of Interactive One, Interactive One is a digital and print media company focusing on the African-American and urban market. As CTO Wright is responsible for the technical strategy of all the Interactive One online properties which include Hellobeautiful, The UrbanDaily, NewsOne, Elev8 and BlackPlanet. He is also responsible for the technical management of the Radio One Network’s radio sites Navarrow was formerly the President of Maximum Leverage Solutions ( http://maxlevsolutions.com), An internet technology consulting firm. Wright is the Co-founder of Globalgrind.com with Russell Simmons and The former CTO of BET.com. Navarrow blogs about issues in technology that affect entrepreneurs, minorities and urban youth on his site at http://www.navarrowwright.com
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