Digital Divide ‘Seriously Troubling’ to Genachowski
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski continues to be alarmed by the gap in home broadband access between whites and minorities and said the agency is taking several steps to address that issue and enhance opportunities for people of color and small businesses seeking to enter media and telecom. With fast Internet service at home for 59 percent of African-Americans, 49 percent of Hispanics and probably around 10 percent for Native Americans, “you already know the numbers,” he told a Minority Media and Telecommunications Council conference Tuesday. “The digital divide is seriously troubling. More troubling now than in the past, because the costs of digital exclusion are rising.”
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Broadband is important to small businesses because it lets them start up with access to high technology available to big companies. “With a high-speed Internet connection and the emergence of cloud computing, every small business can have access to a world-class IT system and a national, indeed global, marketplace, as long as we tackle the barriers to broadband adoption by small businesses,” Genachowski said. “Some people say that where we are in broadband is good enough,” he said, but “I disagree” and deployment must be accelerated to help start-ups and others.
Broadband issues are among those the FCC will examine in its ongoing review of Comcast’s planned purchase of control in NBC Universal, Genachowski told reporters. “Obviously, we look at a deal like that on its terms that present serious issues and we're having a thorough, fair review of that transaction.” On some comments at the conference Monday that media deconsolidation offers opportunities for new entrants to buy stations on the cheap (CD July 20 p15), Genachowski said that subject is being studied in the media ownership review mandated by Congress for 2010.
"The goal of finding opportunities for new entrants in traditional media and new media is very important,” Genachowski told us. “And we have to continue to be creative to open up the doors to the many talented people who want to participate in media and telecommunications.” Also on Tuesday, Senate Commerce Committee members Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, asked Genachowski “not to forget the Senate’s interest in maintaining the public interest goals of localism, diversity, and competition in our media” during the quadrennial ownership review. “The last two attempts by the FCC to weaken the media ownership rules were met with considerable Congressional opposition,” they wrote in a letter released by media consolidation opponent Free Press, http://xrl.us/bhtwb5.
"We want to help small businesses improve their digital skills, their access to broadband,” and the commission is working with the Small Business Administration to start a public-private partnership for training in that area for “small and diverse” firms, Genachowski told the conference. There are “huge opportunities here to accelerate adoption by small businesses of broadband,” he said. The FCC is revamping its Office of Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO) to be a “one-stop shop on the Web” for upstarts and connect them with larger companies, he said. “I've directed OCBO to continue to set up ’speed dating’ opportunities to connect diverse new entrants directly to investors.” Such an approach was backed Monday at the conference by Commissioner Meredith Baker (CD July 20 p2).
"We must tackle the digital healthcare divide,” too, Genachowski said. The FCC is working with the Food and Drug Administration “to provide greater clarity on the process for getting approvals” of “this incredible array” of communications devices with healthcare applications, he said. The commission last week acted to revamp its rural healthcare telecom subsidy program (CD July 16 p3), Genachowski noted.
Established media companies and new ones alike are trying to embed themselves in multiple media, ICBC Broadcast Holdings President Charles Warfield said on earlier panel. “Our industry, we're looking for ways to develop multi-platform opportunities” as are the non-broadcast entrepreneurs in the audience, he said. There may be ways for broadcasters to work with new companies, Warfield said. President Juan Giometti of the National Hispanic Entrepreneurs’ Organization said minorities should learn from “successful communities” including Jews and Asian Americans, who “don’t have a zero-sum game” and instead “they help each other.” Minority-targeted media outlets are “doing an awesome job reaching fragmented audiences,” he added. “So we should charge a premium for that.”