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Another FCC Commissioner Decries Anti-Community Broadband Intiatives

Phillip Dampier May 11, 2011 Community Networks, Public Policy & Gov't, Rural Broadband 2 Comments

Copps

Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps believes that when private companies drop the broadband ball, local communities should have the right to pick it up and run their own community-owned Internet providers.

Copps delivered his remarks yesterday at the annual conference of the SouthEast Chapter of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, a group representing the communications needs and interests of local governments and the communities they serve.

Copps told the audience in Asheville, N.C., broadband is no longer simply a nice thing to have.  It’s now an essential service for many Americans whose work, education, civic involvement, and entertainment increasingly depend on a fast, reliable, and affordable broadband connection.

According to the commissioner, the fact that many communities still don’t have it comes from the mistaken notion that private providers will deliver the service in areas where return on investment requirements are unlikely to be met:

As most of you know, I have been pushing municipal broadband for a long, long time.

When incumbent providers cannot serve the broadband needs of some localities, local governments should be allowed–no, encouraged–to step up to the plate and ensure that their citizens are not left on the wrong side of the great divide. So it is regrettable that some states are considering, and even passing, legislation that could hinder local solutions to bring the benefits of broadband to their communities. It’s exactly the wrong way to go. In this context, too, our previous infrastructure challenges must be the guide.

The successful history of rural electrification, as one example, is due in no small part to municipal electric cooperatives that lit up corners of this country where investor-owned utilities had little incentive to go. Those coops turned on the lights for a lot of people! You know, our country would be a lot better off if we would learn from our past rather than try to defy or deny it.

Copps is now the second FCC Commissioner to defend municipal broadband.  Commissioner Mignon Clyburn has repeatedly expressed similar concerns about private companies trying to restrict public broadband development.

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Arstal
Arstal
12 years ago

Can the FCC tell the states that they can’t restrict it though?

If not, could a city partner with another city in another state, and make it federal jurisdiction?

gabe
gabe
12 years ago
Reply to  Arstal

to be honest the idea of the federal goverment steping on states rights scares me even more then no broadband at all

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