Last year, the FCC, under Trump-appointed chairman Ajit Pai, launched an advisory committee on high-speed internet access, saying it planned to bring broadband to more people. But according to San Jose’s mayor, who quit the committee in protest today, the telecommunications industry has taken hold of the initiative, advancing its own interests at the expense of consumers.
Calls the committee “a vehicle for advancing the interests of the telecommunications industry”
“It has become abundantly clear that despite the good intentions of several participants, the industry-heavy makeup of BDAC [Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee] will simply relegate the body to being a vehicle for advancing the interests of the telecommunications industry over those of the public,” Mayor Sam Liccardo said in his announcement, which was reported on earlier today by Axios.
The broadband committee, meant to be a partnership between a group of stakeholders, has been criticized before for an apparent bias toward the telecom industry. In August, the Center for Public Integrity explained how local governments believed they were being played, as the FCC reportedly stacked more than three out of four positions on the panel with business-friendly interests.
Liccardo says in his letter that he hoped the committee could develop “balanced, common-sense recommendations,” but that he’s since become disillusioned. At a recent meeting, he said, a working group with no municipal representatives considered a plan to eliminate municipal control of broadband infrastructure. The goal, he now believes, is to give the industry “publicly-funded infrastructure at taxpayer-subsidized rates.”
“As a result, I am compelled to submit my resignation to the FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Board, effective immediately,” he writes.
MustGoOutside on January 25th, 2018 at 20:24 UTC »
There's a practical problem here. People who have industry experience are typically best suited to regulate from a knowledge standpoint, but terrible from a conflict-of-interest standpoint.
If you have only people who don't know the industry, what kinds of decisions would they make? How would those impact the services those industries provide?
The answer is to have both parties represented, with industry people serving as subject matter experts and non-industry people serving as the decision makers.
Unfortunately, I don't think we've been able to reach that balance without the non-industry types being severely corrupted through campaign contributions or with an imbalance like we're seeing here in San Jose.
trezor2 on January 25th, 2018 at 20:02 UTC »
So the FCC was formed to regulate the Telecom industry, because it was an industry in need of regulation, because if it were to be left on its own, it would not operate for the public good.
And now the FCC is run by the telecom industry.
And nobody bats an eye? Really?
TehSoupNazi on January 25th, 2018 at 18:20 UTC »
Hopefully bringing this to light will aid any investigations into FCC corruption regarding the Title II repeal.