FCC 'Broadband Advisory Panel' Faces Accusations Of Cronyism

from the protect-the-status-quo! dept

Last year we noted how the FCC had been hyping the creation of a new "Broadband Deployment Advisory Panel" purportedly tasked with coming up with solutions to the nation's broadband problem. Unfortunately, reports just as quickly began to circulate that this panel was little more than a who's who of entrenched telecom operators with a vested interest in protecting the status quo. What's more, the panel featured few representatives from the countless towns and cities that have been forced to build their own broadband networks in the wake of telecom sector dysfunction.

One report showed how 28 of the 30 representatives on the panel had some direct financial ties to the telecom sector, though many attempted to obfuscate this connection via their work for industry-funded think tanks.

You'll recall that FCC boss Ajit Pai consistently insists he's breathlessly dedicated to closing the digital divide, despite the fact his policies (like killing net neutrality or protecting business broadband monopolies) will indisputably make the problem worse. Regardless, Pai has spent the last few weeks insisting in speeches like this one (pdf) that his advisory council is the centerpiece of his efforts to close the digital divide:

"...the BDAC’s work is critical to my top policy priority as FCC Chairman—closing the digital divide. I’ve long said that every American who wants to participate in the digital economy should be able to do so. That’s why at my first open meeting as FCC Chairman, I announced the establishment of the BDAC. And since last March, you’ve been hard at work developing recommendations to the FCC about strategies to promote better, faster, and cheaper broadband. Indeed, you’ve been working so hard that it’s going to take you two days, rather than the one typical for advisory committee meetings, to review and finalize many of these recommendations .

And while Pai insists that this council is doing yeoman's work in solving all of the industry's issues, that's not how non-incumbent-industry panel members see it. In fact, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo last week resigned from the panel claiming in his resignation letter (pdf) that the panel exists almost exclusively to help prop up the interests of incumbent ISPs (if you've watched the whole net neutrality thing, this surely comes as no surprise):

"It has become abundantly clear that despite the good intentions of several participants, the industry-heavy makeup of BDAC will simply relegate the body to being a vehicle for advancing the interests of the telecommunications industry over those of the public. The apparent goal is to create a set of rules that will provide industry with easy access to publicly-funded infrastructure at taxpayersubsidized rates, without any obligation to provide broadband access to underserved residents."

As we've noted repeatedly, numerous towns and cities are building their own networks after more than a decade of limited competition has resulted in over-priced, under-performing broadband in countless markets nationwide. Often the only option available to these folks if they want quality connectivity in the Comcast era is to either build their own networks, or strike public/private partnerships with the likes of Google Fiber. But we've also noted for years how ISPs have passed protectionist laws in more than 20 states banning towns and cities from doing so, with the full support of the Trump FCC.

Liccardo, one of the only municipal representatives on the panel (quite by intent) goes on to note how the agency has yet to put forth one meaningful solution to truly help bridge the digital divide:

"The chairs of the working groups on which I participated have been very cordial, and collaborative in tone, and I am grateful for that. However, after nine months of deliberation, negotiation, and discussion, we’ve made no progress toward a single proposal that will actually further the goal of equitable broadband deployment. Although we’ve adopted principles that pay lip service to that objective, not a single one of the draft recommendations attempts to meaningfully identify any new or significant resources to promote digital inclusion."

If you truly want to fix the nation's broken broadband (whether high prices, privacy abuses or net neutrality violations), you need to embrace creative new ways to drive more competition to the market. But since entrenched incumbent providers don't want the associated reduction in revenues, the best alternative is the illusion of productivity. And nothing helps foster that illusion more than paying empty lip service to closing the digital divide on one hand, while actively working to keep everything as broken and dysfunctional as possible with the other.

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Filed Under: ajit pai, broadband, competition, cronyism, fcc, sam liccardo