Congressional Black Caucus Institute, CWA Release Broadband Report, Call for Action on NBP

The Congressional Black Caucus Institute's (CBCI) 21st Century Council and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) published a report that addresses the need for action on the National Broadband Plan to close the digital divide.

The report, High-Speed Broadband For All, is based on presentations at a Capitol Hill seminar co-sponsored by the CBCI and CWA in September of this year.

CWA President Larry Cohen highlighted the shortcomings of broadband in this country, noting that the U.S. will need a huge investment in high-speed networks to give the U.S. the advantage it needs on the global stage:

"What we call broadband is ridiculous. We need hundreds of billions — not just billions of dollars in network investment — to catch up with the rest of the world."

The report emphasized the economic and social benefits of broadband, and the need for public policies to make broadband affordable and available to all. According to Nicol Turner-Lee of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies:

"We're not just talking about wires and poles — we're talking about equity," adding that access to broadband means the ability to find jobs, to find health care, to be connected with family and friends. Lack of access means, in many ways, a second-class citizenship.

But there is a persistent digital divide based on income, education, skills, age, and geography. Among Black Americans, for example, 45 percent of low-income households earning less than $20,000 a year subscribe to broadband, compared to 79 percent of those earning over $50,000 a year.

Blair Levin, currently an Aspen Institute Fellow and former Executive Director of the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative, urged the FCC to move forward to reform the Universal Service Fund to support broadband:

"We're using most of the money for a very small number of homes and completely ignoring the far, far larger group of people who don't have the skills that enable them to use broadband."

CWA's Debbie Goldman emphasized the link between broadband investment and economic prosperity:

"There's a virtuous cycle of network investment, job, and development of Internet applications and services. Our broadband policies must put investment and job creation first."

The report notes that the largest employers in the Internet economy are the network providers, not the applications companies that are more commonly associated with the Internet. Only 30 people work at Craigslist, 800 at Facebook, but almost 300,000 at AT&T.

Morever, according to a San Jose Mercury News survey cited in the report, blacks, Latinos, and women are all significantly underrepresented at Silicon Valley high tech companies.

The report emphasizes that policymakers need to focus on these key issues of broadband investment and adoption. Communities that don't have high-speed broadband will no longer be sustainable communities.

High Speed Broadband for All (Speed Matters)