"Local Network Stimulus: A 'Green' Broadband Policy for Underserved America"

A "talking points" summary presented Dec. 12, 2008, at the Rainbow/PUSH Public Policy Institute & Telecommunications Project Annual Symposium in Washington, D.C. by Wally Bowen, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Mountain Area Information Network in Asheville, N.C. Bowen also served on the N.C. Rural Internet Access Authority.

President-elect Barack Obama recently announced an economic stimulus package for public works infrastructure that includes broadband Internet access. To succeed, this taxpayer investment must avoid past mistakes and be guided by a new 'green' broadband policy:

A. Three common broadband policies which haven't worked:

Force Big Telecom, via regulation, to serve low-income/rural areas.
"Bribe" Big Telecom with tax breaks and subsidies.
Build demand in underserved areas to attract Big Telecom investment.

State initiatives like the N.C. Rural Internet Access Authority have tried #s 2 and 3 with little success. States have little authority for #1. The most successful projects are nonprofit "middle-mile" fiber (like ERCbroadband.org) and "last-mile" wireless networks (like the Mountain Area Information Network). Most states have "shovel-ready" broadband projects for underserved areas (directory).

B. Why Big Telecom's business model is a "disconnect" for underserved areas:

Priority focus on national/international networks and corporate clients.
Centralized management and operations.
Outsourced customer service and tech support.
Investment capital aimed at highest ROI.
Absentee relationship with locals.
Wall St. business model doesn't work in low-income/rural areas.

C. Why a new business model for underserved areas is NOW possible:

New digital technology is faster, cheaper and easier to use.
"White Spaces" (WS) spectrum enables a new generation of mobile broadband devices ("Wi-Fi on Steroids") and new "real-time" mobile applications for telemedicine, "m-commerce" and community self-help.

[Self-help examples include "green" collaboration on energy conservation, public transit, "real-time" air/water/weather monitoring, sustainable agriculture, "buy local" efforts, plus civic applications for public health, community journalism, etc. References below.]

Hybrid fiber/Wi-Fi networks are now feasible in difficult terrain, with fiber for "middle-mile" and White Spaces ("Wi-Fi on Steroids") for "last-mile" to homes and businesses.
All the above enable a new "locally-owned" business model that can succeed where Big Telecom business models fail or refuse to go.
"Win-Win" solution: No need to "bribe" Big Telecom with tax breaks and subsidies, or coerce with burdensome regulation.

Solution: Let local networks solve the Digital Divide, freeing Big Telecom to pursue its business model elsewhere. This solution also eliminates the near-impossible challenge of holding Big Telecom accountable for tax breaks and subsidies, as recent history has shown.

Acknowledging local networks is long overdue. Western North Carolina -- a mountain region the size of Vermont -- is home to four nonprofit "middle-mile" fiber networks (ercbroadband.org, pangaea.us, skyline.org and frenchbroademc.com) plus a public-private fiber partnership (balsamwest.net) between the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and a local software firm.

D. Local Networks: The New "Green" Broadband Policy

Give funding priority to local networks.
Encourage new business models via nonprofit, co-op and municipal networks.
Make for-profit providers eligible for federal funding with guarantee that network assets remain under local ownership.
Taxpayer investments leverage more local economic activity and local jobs.
Digital dollars stay local to boost the local economy via "multiplier" effect.
Local networks create local jobs (e.g. local tech support instead of outsourced tech support).
Local networks provide mentoring and training opportunities for community youth, creating a digital workforce for new local businesses.
Local networks are accessible for local businesses to innovate, for civic self-help projects, and for local government needs (e.g. disaster-recovery communications, as proven by Katrina aftermath).
A nation of local and regional network providers -- independent of Big Telecom control -- creates the long-awaited "third pipe" alternative, thereby creating a more competitive broadband marketplace to ensure "net neutrality" and "open network" protocols.
"Solving for Pattern": Holistic design -- solving multiple problems simultaneously -- is standard practice in architecture, urban planning, sustainable economics, etc. Federal broadband policy MUST rise to this level of sophistication. [First articulated in "Solving for Pattern," the influential 1981 essay by Wendell Berry.]
Relying on Big Telecom to solve the Digital Divide is an inefficient "mono-culture" solution with a high risk of failure, lower return on taxpayer investments, and continued risk to civil liberties. Accountability is next to impossible.
Empowering local networks restores traditional American values and practices of self-reliance, community self-help, innovation at the grassroots, competitive markets, and civil liberties. . . a kind of Jeffersonian broadband vision.

This is an historic window of opportunity for a bold, new broadband policy, an opening we aren't likely to see again. END

Contact Wally Bowen at:
wallyb@main.nc.us

Bibliography:

Directory of State Broadband Initiatives
http://www.speedmatters.org/statepolicy/

"Civic Engagement 'On the Move': How Mobile Media Can Serve the Public Good" Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program (2008)
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.4197611/k.6190/Civic_...

"Can Social Networking Be Used for Social Change?" (2008)
http://mobileactive.org/can-social-networking-be-used-social-change

"Solving for Pattern," 1981 essay by Wendell Berry, collected in "The Gift of Good Land."
http://pcr.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=5673