Internet for Everyone: Creating a National Broadband Plan

Short Synopsis

Free Press is leading the creation of a national broadband plan through policies that will result in fast, affordable and open Internet connections for everyone in America and ensure that ingenuity and innovation continue to drive U.S. economic recovery and growth. We are bringing over 160 governmental, civic, public interest and industry groups together with more than 500,000 grassroots activists to press for empirically-driven, progressive and pro-competition regulatory structures in U.S. telecommunications policies.

Description/Treatment

THE PROBLEM

The United States — the birthplace of the Internet — now has one of the slowest, most expensive and least available broadband systems among industrialized nations. The primary cause of this failure is a federal regulatory process dominated by cable and telephone companies, resulting in policies made by the U.S. Congress and the FCC that stifle competition and create unfair subsidies and advantages to incumbent Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Each month that policymakers let pass without addressing our broadband problems is another month that millions of low-income children fall further behind in acquiring the technology skills that they will need to compete in the 21st-century global economy. Each month of FCC inaction is another month that millions of Americans will pay billions more than they should for Internet connections that are too slow to even deserve to be called “broadband.” And each month of neglect is another month that the phone and cable companies can use their duopoly profits to implement secretive network management schemes that violate consumer privacy, undermine competition, and threaten the future of the Internet as an open platform for innovation.

THE SOLUTION

Free Press advocates for a national broadband plan that results in every home, classroom and business connected to the Internet. All Americans — urban and rural, rich and poor —  must have unfettered access to the highest quality service at the lowest possible price. Internet service providers must preserve people’s right to freedom of speech and access to information — without gatekeeping or discrimination.

Among our priorities: (1) Federal subsidies to build out a robust high speed fiber infrastructure, including reallocation of the corrupt and outdated Universal Service Fund; (2) Enactment of Net Neutrality legislation; (3) Open access requirements that compel ISPs to open their broadband networks to competitors; (4) Support for municipal and non-profit broadband providers; and (5) Deployment of unused public airwave spectrum or “white spaces” to make low-cost wireless Internet ubiquitous. 

THE ROLE OF FREE PRESS

Free Press is among the most effective advocacy organizations in the nation. We promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications. We have built a base of 500,000 activists, developed effective relationships with hundreds of organizations, and created diverse coalitions, aggregating political clout that bridge the public and private sectors and span political spectrums.

Most recently, we have played a major role in the following victories: halting the further consolidation of media ownership, outlawing illegal Defense Department propaganda; stopping Comcast’s illegal blocking of Internet traffic; deterring Time Warner Cable from price gouging through consumption-based metering; opening up unused TV spectrum for high-speed Internet access; and passing legislation to improve broadband data collection.

We are currently deeply involved in monitoring spending of the $7.2 billion in stimulus funding for broadband infrastructure. Free Press played a pivotal role in getting broadband funds included in the stimulus legislation and is now working to ensure that these monies reach the intended recipients with the correct public interest requirements intact and enforced.

An “inside-out” strategy guides all of our work. Free Press’ DC-based analysts, researchers, lawyers and lobbyists have deep knowledge of public policy processes and realistic political opportunities. We connect this expertise to our talented organizers who conduct education, outreach, and mobilizing activities designed to build grassroots leadership in support of media policies that strengthen our democracy. Our research, education, organizing and mobilizing work is bolstered by:

• Well-timed e-mail alerts that prompt rapid response. Our ‘go-to’ Web sites — FreePress.net, SavetheInternet.com  and InternetforEveryone.org — provide forums for people to learn what they need to know about the issues, connect the dots to problems they are experiencing, and get active through organizing and contact with policymakers. (Last year Free Press activists contacted officials over 450,000 times.)

• Frequent mention in the mainstream and alternative press that elevates awareness about why having a national broadband policy is critical. Not only are we regularly quoted in The New York Times and other major outlets, we also appear on numerous popular blogs, keep a presence on social network sites like Facebook; host a weekly radio program, and produce mini-documentaries that are seen by millions on YouTube, and put a human face on life without broadband.

• Publication of widely-cited research papers that substantiate our claims and debunk industry myths, invite testimony before Congress and provide a roadmap for policymakers on emerging issues. Our recent reports, Five Days on the Digital Dirt Road and Wired Less: Disconnected in Urban America, illustrating the failures of U.S. policymakers with real-life stories. Our Putting the Angels in the Details: A Roadmap for Broadband Stimulus report provides a guide for the correct use of public investment.

• Precedent-setting legal work — such as our role in the 2007 FCC sanction of Comcast for violating Net Neutrality — lays the groundwork to permanently prohibit all Internet blocking and discrimination.

• Regular in-person convenings that coalesce and build the movement.Free Press’ National Conferences for Media Reform, town hall meetings, and public hearings bring together policymakers, academics, journalists, industry heads, civic leaders and everyday citizens to build a better media.