Cable, Wireless, Telcos Promote Web Access for Minorities
Further broadband deployment should encourage economic growth for minorities but there are important steps that must be taken first, trade-group executives said Monday. Speaking to the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference, NAB President Gordon Smith called for the reinstatement of the minority tax certificate, also sought there by FCC members. (See separate report in this issue.) “We have to increase diversity of ownership by restoring the tax certificate that was available to the minority community,” said Smith. “We should have amended, not ended the minority tax certificate.”
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Walter McCormick, president of U.S. Telecom, stressed the importance of greater literacy training among minority groups. “We're concerned about the people who have access who aren’t taking advantage of it,” he said. Adoption is a big focus for the NCTA, said President Kyle McSlarrow. “While deployment is important, it’s much less important than ensuring adoption in our communities.”
Broadband must become more affordable to minority communities, Blair Levin, the former executive director of the FCC’s broadband initiative, said on an earlier panel. Spectrum management should be revamped to increase access to minority communities, Levin, now at the Aspen Institute. It’s essential to offer at least 1 GB of connectivity to every community to fully achieve universal first-class digital citizenship in America, he said. Educators need to replace all textbooks with digital content so students learn “as much as they can, as fast as they can” and in a way that can be measured, he said.
A lack of digital literacy among minorities and the elderly is a major reason for their lack of Internet connectivity, said David Don, Comcast senior director of public policy. The company has rolled out eight community outreach initiatives such as its urban training programs and technology learning centers to give young adults the skills to teach others in their communities the value of being online, he said. Cost is another major factor that prevents many Americans from accessing the Internet regularly, and Comcast in response entered into a partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to offer deep discounts to residents of government-supported housing, he said.
Verizon said its focus on increased mobile broadband access is essential to boosting the connectivity of minority communities to the Internet. “Wireless is the gateway” for minority communities, said David Hill, an associate general counsel. He cited a recent Pew study of wireless use in the U.S. that found that two-thirds of members of minorities access the Internet wirelessly. Future growth in wireless technology is critical to bringing the Internet to minority communities, Hill said. Verizon’s upcoming 4G network will ensure that minorities have more access to the Internet because the expanded access will let users conduct video chats, media sharing, distance learning and video sharing over their mobile devices, he said. The arrival of Verizon’s 4G network will provide today’s wired speeds to all its wireless users by 2013, Hill said.
A digital divide still exists in the U.S., said an AT&T executive. The company’s mission is to “truly connect” communities to online content, said Cynthia Marshall, president of AT&T North Carolina. Invoking what she called a “call for traction,” Marshall said AT&T is working to fulfill a goal of offering broadband access to all North Carolina residents by 2014. AT&T’s current focus is on the local expansion of jobs, education and technology, she said. A top initiative is to offer mentorship programs to young adults and provide them with access to connectivity hardware and personal laptops, Marshall said. The company spent $19 billion in 2010 to expand broadband technology to underserved and low-income areas, she said.