Pai Sees Glimmers of Bipartisan Support for His Digital Divide Package
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai's gigabit opportunity zone idea for helping close the digital divide is seeing "some promising green shoots" of bipartisan support in Congress, he told a Project Get Older Adults Online (GOAL) event. Pai said he hopes that and other proposals for promoting universal service will be embraced in 2017 "regardless of who controls the FCC or Congress." If all goes well, the coming administration change won't derail momentum or lead to work reinventing what is happening, said Comcast Executive Director-External Affairs Jackie Puente.
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The gigabit opportunity zone is part of a three-pronged plan for promoting universal service that Pai said he's pushing. Along with that proposal of tax breaks and other incentives he unveiled last month (see 1609130061), Pai Tuesday backed removing barriers to wireless deployment, such as the FCC focusing its mobility fund spending on unserved and underserved areas and earmarking 10 percent of auction proceeds to rural broadband deployment. He cited the need for more broadly removing infrastructure barriers, such as ensuring dig-once rules are "part of our national transportation policy" and Congress -- through expanding Communications Act Section 224 on pole attachments -- giving the FCC more ability to cut pole attachment rates.
Pointing to Pew Research Center data indicating 45 percent of older adults are Internet users, Project GOAL Director Debra Berlyn said looking specifically at the low-income population, "We know the divide is much greater." AARP Foundation Senior Vice President-Programs Emily Allen said without access, older adults can be effectively locked out of the workplace and are at particular risk for isolation, which studies have shown has health consequences akin to being a smoker: "This literally can be an early death sentence."
The FCC National Broadband Plan helped spur conversations about older adults' access to the Internet and now momentum toward trying to close that digital divide, Puente said. Charter Communications Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Christianna Barnhart said as the company works on its integration of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, bought earlier this year, it's implementing some aspects of their low-income broadband programs into its own Spectrum Internet Assistance program. Spectrum Internet Assistance is being rolled out in individual markets with the goal to be across all of Charter's legacy footprint by the end of 2017, she said, saying it's targeting low-income households and seniors on Social Security Supplemental Security Income. The FCC required Charter to offer a low-income broadband service as part of its TWC/BHN buys (see 1605100050).
Getting word out about a connectivity program aimed at seniors is particularly challenging, and making the case for broadband relevance to that population has to be a key goal for adoption to be effective, Puente said. She said Comcast for most of the history of its Internet Essentials program focused on using "trusted partners" -- like churches, libraries, schoolteachers and doctors' offices -- as the main disseminators of information. AT&T Director-Public Affairs Susan Diegelman said the company's Access from AT&T program launched earlier this year -- using the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as its qualifying eligibility -- also plans public service announcements, as Comcast uses. Diegelman said rollout of Access from AT&T has taken longer than expected because of the challenges in planning, including finding the best trusted partners. None of the panelists afterward commented to us on how AT&T's $108.7 billion proposed buy of Time Warner, announced Saturday (see 1610240046), might affect their broadband plans.