Category Archives: Policy

New York City Council Approves Public Broadband Commission

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Many thanks to Council Member Gale A. Brewer for gaining approval of this important commission. NYCw looks forward to participating as a independent voice on broadband issues in NYC.

http://muniwireless.com/municipal/watch/955

The New York City Council has moved one step closer to bringing more competition into the market for high-speed Internet access to city residents and businesses. On Wednesday, December 21, 2005, the Council voted to pass Intro 625-A, sponsored by Council Member Gale A. Brewer (D-Manhattan), the Chair of the Committee on Technology in Government. This piece of legislation passed the Committee on Technology in Government unanimously on Tuesday, December 20, 2005. Int. No. 625-A creates a joint public broadband commission to advise the Mayor and the City Council of New York on how the resources of City government can be used to stimulate the private market so that residents and businesses of New York City have more options in terms of high-speed Internet access. The goal of the commission is to educate the general public about broadband and the newest communication technologies, and to give New York City residents the opportunity to comment on how the digital divide in New York City can be closed.

The Coming Network Neutrality War

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SBC fired the first shot. But Bell South has basically confirmed it was more then a misquote. Phone companies think they can control the Internet and select the content their paying customers get to see. “his company should be allowed to charge a rival voice-over-Internet firm so that its service can operate with the same quality as BellSouth’s offering.”

If you have not taken part in the the NYCwireless Network Neutrality Challenge please get involved NOW.

Agenda from November 18 FCC Consumer Advisory Committee Meeting

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The second FCC Consumer Advisory Committee meeting included panels on Telecommunications Competition and Consumers, and Media Ownership and Consumer Interest; passed recommendations on Access to Video Relay Service Networks and Public Interest Obligations and the Digital Television; and included briefings on Public Participation via New Information and Communication Technologies.

NYCwireless is being represented on the Rural and Underserved Communities and Advanced Technologies working groups.
CONSUMER ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, S.W., Room TW-C305, Washington, DC

Friday, November 18, 2005

8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

A G E N D A

Morning Session

8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast, Networking and Conversation

9:00 – 9:05 a.m. Welcome and Call to Order Shirley L. Rooker, Chair, Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC)

9:05 – 9:10 a.m. Meeting Logistics Scott Marshall, CAC Designated Federal Officer, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB)

9:10 – 9:30 a.m.
Introduction of the Chairman and Commissioners, (Chairman and Commissioners invited — schedules permitting) Monica Desai, Chief, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB)

9:30 – 9:45 a.m. CGB Update, Monica Desai, Chief, CGB

9:45 – 10:00 a.m. Break

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Perspectives on Telecommunications Competition and Consumers Panel Discussion: Debra Berlyn, Chair Competition Policy WG

11:00 – 12:00 p.m.
Media Ownership and Consumer Interest Panel Discussion: Denis Moynihan, Chair, Media WG, (speakers Juan Gonzalez; David Honig, Executive Director Minority Media and Telecommunications Council; Anthony Riddle, Alliance for Community Media; Hannah Sassaman, Program Director, Prometheus Radio Project)

12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Lunch and Networking

Afternoon Session

1:00 – 1:45 p.m. Recommendation Regarding Access to VRS Networks Dixie Ziegler, Chair, TRS WG

1:45 – 2:30 p.m. Recommendation Concerning Public Interest Obligations and the Digital Television Charles Benton, Member, Media WG

2:30 – 2:45 p.m. Break

2:45 – 3:15 p.m. Public participation via New Information and Communication Technologies at the FCC Speaker: Joanne Holman, Associate Professor, School of Media Arts & Design, James Madison University

3:15 – 3:45 p.m. Captioning and DTV Demonstration
Introduction: Julie Kearney, CAC Member
Presenters: Brian Markwalter, Vice President Technology and Standards, Consumer Electronics Association; Paul Thomsen, Director, Design/Technology & Standards, Hitachi Home Electronics (America), Inc.; Robert N. Blanchard, Standards Coordinator, Sony Electronics Television Operations of the Americas, Advanced Technology and Planning Division.

3:45 – 4:00 p.m. Wrap up, Comments from the Public, and Future Meetings

4:00 p.m. Adjournment

FCC Consumer Advisory Committee Summary Information

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NYCwireless, along with a number of other public interest organizations, is part of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. If you are interested in following the work that we do, the meetings are open to the public and are also broadcast online.

The Benton Foundation, an organization that NYCwireless works with on the Committee, is posting regular updates on the meetings, which you can use to get summaries of what is happening: http://www.benton.org/initiatives/proceedings.html

HR 2726 (Rep. Pete Sessions) Bill Banning Muni-Networks Nationwide

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A bill just introduced in Congress would take away the right of cities and towns across the country to provide citizens with universal, low-cost Internet access.

Giant cable and telephone companies don’t want any competition–which might actually force them to offer lower prices, higher speeds and service to rural and urban areas.

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas)–a former telephone company executive–has introduced a bill (HR 2726) that would let cable and telecom companies shut down municipal and community efforts to offer broadband services.

You can stop this outrageous bill. Send a message to your representative now at http://www.freepress.net/action/sessionsbill.

No less than the future of all communications is at stake. In a few years, television, telephone, radio and the Web will be accessed through a high-speed internet connection. Low-cost alternatives to telephone (DSL) and cable monopolies are emerging across the country, as cities, towns, nonprofits and community groups build low-cost “Community Internet” and municipal broadband systems.

Companies like SBC, Verizon and Comcast have been introducing laws state by state that would prohibit municipal broadband, undercut local control and prevent competition. But we’ve been fighting back–and winning.

An alliance of public interest groups, local officials, high-tech innovators and organized citizens have defeated anti-municipal broadband measures in nine of the 13 states where they’ve been introduced this year.

What the industry couldn’t pass in the states, they’re trying to push through in Washington. Sessions’ bill–the “Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act” (an Orwellian title if there ever was one)–would prevent state and local governments from providing “any telecommunications service, information service or cable service” anywhere a corporation offers a similar service.

Congressman Sessions worked for telephone giant SBC for 16 years, and his wife currently serves as a director of Cingular Wireless, an SBC subsidiary. SBC and its employees have been Sessions’ second-biggest career patron, pouring more than $75,000 into his campaign coffers.

We can stop this legislation and send a clear message to Congress that local communities–not the giant telephone and cable companies–should determine their own communications needs. But you must act now.

Please send a letter opposing HR 2726 at http://www.freepress.net/action/sessionsbill–and forward this message to everyone you know, asking them to do the same.