Another city resigns from Chairman Pai’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee

New York City’s chief technology officer resigned from the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC), which was started by Trump’s Chairman, Ajit Pai. The BDAC is tasked with developing and recommending to the FCC policies for broadband deployment that address the needs of all stakeholders. But that task is only possible when all stakeholders are meaningfully included.

“As the BDAC’s process is scheduled to come to a close, it is clear that despite good faith efforts by both the staff and members involved, the membership structure and meeting format of the BDAC has skewed the drafting of the proposed recommendations towards industry priorities without regard for a true public-private partnership,” New York City’s representative on the committee said. “These circumstances give me no choice but to step away from this committee in order to direct the City’s energy and resources to alternative forums that provide more productive opportunities for achieving the kind of cooperative progress in advancing broadband deployment in the public interest.”

Earlier this year, San Jose’s mayor also resigned from the BDAC, citing similar concerns that the committee was biased toward industry. "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 mayor wrote in his resignation letter.

Links:

Is the FCC’s BDAC falling apart? (FierceTelecom, Apr. 3, 2018)

San Jose mayor resigns from FCC BDAC over pole attachment, city infrastructure recommendations dispute (FierceTelecom, Jan. 25, 2018)