[1st-mile-nm] Beyond Access - Building Grassroots Power through Community Broadband Networks

[Richard Lowenberg]

 I know that individual subscribers to this list presented as part of 
 the
 Tribal Telecom Conference, and others attended.  Log on to the site, 
 for links.
 Any added follow-up from participants and/or atendees is appreciated.
 RL

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 Beyond Access - Building Grassroots Power through Community Broadband 
 Networks

 http://mag-net.org/blog/digital-dialogue-recap-beyond-access-building-grassroots-power-through-community-broadband-netw

 Digital Dialogue Recap: Beyond Access - Building Grassroots Power 
 through Community Broadband Networks

 Submitted by Brandi on Thu, 2012-02-02

 (On Thursday), the national Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net) 
 member, Native Public Media (NPM) hosted the first ever Tribal Telecom 
 conference in Tucson, Arizona.  At the conference tribal leaders, 
 government officials and entrepreneurs (came) together to share 
 information, explore options, and pursue solutions to advance close the 
 digital divide for tribal communities.

 On January 25th, last week, Traci Morris of NPM was a special guest on 
 MAG-Net’s monthly digital dialogue call, Beyond Access: Owning Community 
 Broadband Networks. “By any measure, communities on tribal lands have 
 less access to community broadband than any other segment of the 
 population”, Traci remarks, “Only six tribes in Indian country got BTOP 
 broadband funding last year - this doesn't do enough to bridge the 
 digital divide”. Traci provided a sobering overview of the state of 
 communications access in Indian country, citing that only 68% of people 
 actually have telephone access and that only less than 10 percent of 
 have broadband access.”  Traci continued to assert the Internet is an 
 equalizer and how it’s key for economic development, and community 
 growth opportunities, providing Native Americans with access to health 
 care, jobs and more.

 The MAG-Net Dialogue also featured Christopher Mitchell of the 
 Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s (ILSR) New Rules project, an 
 organization devoted to providing news, information, research, and 
 connections to the nation-wide movement of building broadband networks 
 that are directly accountable to the community they serve. ILSR 
 encourages community ownership of structures such as public ownership, 
 cooperative models, and other nonprofit approaches.

 Benefits of Community Broadband Networks

 Just like electricity, broadband is now a basic element of necessary 
 infrastructure that must be guaranteed by policy and investment in order 
 to ensure our nation’s economic survival.   In 2010, The FCC reported 
 that between 14 and 24 million Americans lack access to broadband and 
 found that unserved areas are disproportionately rural or low-income.  A 
 2010 Pew Center study found that while 66% of all adults now have 
 broadband at home, just 56% of African Americans, 66% of Latinos and 45% 
 of those making less than $30,000 a year do.

 Community broadband networks empower communities to make creative 
 choices on how broadband infrastructure deployment and service provision 
 can best serve their social and economic development needs. In the best 
 and most common examples, a community might decide to use wireless 
 technologies to extend services to hard-to-reach areas.  Community 
 networks create opportunities that retain talent and business and allow 
 for sustainable economic growth.  These models present new and 
 innovative opportunities to extend services and prove the viability of 
 underserved and unserved communities by changing the cost structure of 
 the investment model.

 Local owned infrastructures allow communities to build to suit local 
 needs, geographic strengths and bottlenecks in ways that can greatly 
 reduce cost. Communities that have invested in these networks have seen 
 tremendous benefits. Even small communities have generated millions of 
 dollars in cumulative savings from reduced rates – caused by 
 competition.  According to major employers have cited broadband networks 
 as a deciding factor in choosing a new site and existing businesses have 
 prospered in a more competitive environment.

 Telecoms Pose Challenges and Threats

 The continued monopolization of broadband wire infrastructure by a few 
 large incumbents creates a powerful force aimed at protecting the 
 current business model—one that leads to digital redlining, exclusion of 
 communities of color, and higher costs and lower speeds for all 
 subscribers. There are 18 states that have legislation that either bans 
 community networks

 For many years, telecommunication and cable companies have been 
 lobbying hard on the state level to push legislation that would prevent 
 municipal broadband networks.  Most recently, last week AT&T reignited 
 their push to pass a bill in the state legislature that “will gut the 
 self-determination of local communities in the digital age”, according 
 to Mitchell. “The market power of AT&T and Time Warner Cable has already 
 driven most private sector competition from the market -- now they want 
 to use their lobbying clout to ensure that the communities themselves 
 cannot build the networks they need to attract economic development and 
 maintain a high quality of life.”

 Despite these threats, local communities are finding innovate ways to 
 pool resources together to start their own broadband networks.  The 
 MAG-Net digital dialogue also featured Danielle Chynoweth, co-founder of 
 Urbana-­‐Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC) who transformed 
 their organization into an instrumental leader in winning a $22.5 
 million in Broadband infrastructure funds for their mainly rural 
 community – a community of about 120,000 with a large research one 
 university in a community still divided by race and class.

 “Much of our community had no high speed option through the private 
 sector as AT&T has cherry picked where to deliver UVerse high speed 
 Internet.  Winning the broadband funds was the capstone on a decade of 
 local organizing around digital inclusion.”, Danielle continues to 
 explain, “UCIMC has long sponsored the development of open source 
 community wireless systems and deployed the first wifi network in 
 Urbana, extended in collaboration with the city.  Our system was used as 
 well by townships in South Africa as tribal lands out west.”

 UCIMC members helped to spearhead the creation of a Broadband Access 
 committee of the local cable and telecommunication commission. During 
 the grants process, Urbana IMC used these funds to get stimulus funds.

 Chris Mitchell applauded the successful national fight to win the Local 
 Community Radio Act in December 2010 and the need to study and learn how 
 that battle was won.  This win now allows communities to own their own 
 community media infrastructure through operating their own lower power 
 radio stations.  Lessons can be learned from this 10-year fight as 
 communities pursue owning their own broadband infrastructure.



-- 
 Richard Lowenberg
 1st-Mile Institute
 Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
 505-989-9110 / 505-603-5200
 www.1st-mile.com
 rl at 1st-mile.com