Save the Internet, Save the World

Submitted by Brett on Tue, 08/25/2009 - 7:46am.

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You work in a nonprofit. By definition, your to-do list includes a lot of important things you need to get done, right now. It probably includes more important things than you have time to do. So, why would you be interested in the debate about getting broadband Internet access to under-served communities? Why should you be interested in esoteric issues like "net-neutrality?

You need access to high speed Internet to participate in our society

Simply put, in the last 15 years, the Internet has become a necessity for participating in our society -- and in most cases, high speed Internet has become a necessity. If you care about your clients, if you care about your community, you need to care about the Internet.

The only way someone can apply for a job at Target or Walmart or many large companies is through the Internet.
The only way refugees in this country can check on the status of their applications with the US Immigration and Naturalization Service is though the Web. (I challenge anyone to try to get through the INS process in one hour, the time limit many public libraries put on Internet use.)
Other government programs are following the lead of the INS and providing some services or information only via the Internet.
If you own a small business, you significantly limit your market if you don't have a Web site.
How do kids who don't have the Internet at home finish high school research projects? Their two choices (if they're lucky) are: in the school or at the public library.
If you don't want to wait on hold for hours, the best place to get information about your city government -- or county government, or Social Security benefits, or Medicare, or Section 8 housing assistance -- is the Internet.
If you don't want your news "pre-chewed"; by large corporations, your only alternative is the Internet.

If making sure the members of your community have affordable, high speed Internet isn't important to you, how about something practical: Making your nonprofit more efficient.

Imagine never having to send another direct mail piece.
Imagine allowing your employees to work from anyplace -- not just the office. (Maybe you can reduce the amount of space you rent.)
Imagine telling your clients about important changes to a policy RIGHT NOW.
Imagine mobilizing your constituents for an important public meeting with only a day's notice.
Imagine providing training any-time, any-place.

All of this only really takes off when everyone has high speed Internet service.

Right now there are decisions being made in your town, in your state, and in Washington DC that could change the Internet. There are two basic issues you need to be involved in:

Affordable access to high speed Internet service for everyone
Who controls what is on the Internet.

Access to the Internet:
Everyone needs to be able to connect to high speed Internet at an affordable price.

Right now, if you live in a metropolitan area or a large town, you probably have a choice of getting Internet service from your phone company or your cable TV company. Contrary to what the telecommunications industry wants you to think, this is not competition. In economic terms, this is called a duopoly. With only two competitors, they can just look at what their competition is providing and make slight changes in price, while protecting their high profits.

If you live in a small town or in rural America, your choices are probably limited to slow and expensive satellite Internet service or even slower dial-up service.

How can you get involved in ensuring everyone has access to high speed Internet?

The most important place for you to participate is at your local government level. A lot of local governments have started to consider providing a third option: a high speed fiber cable to every home or high speed wireless service. This should provide better service -- and will at least provide one more competitor.

You need to help ensure that:

Any new system must provide service to everyone, to every corner of the city, to every neighborhood.
If your government is talking to a private business about providing the service, you have to make sure there are some public benefits, something the company gives back to the community. (More information on "Community Benefits Agreements" is available at the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability web site.)

There is no one place to find out what's happening in communities across the country. To get involved, you're going to have to do some digging at city hall.

Some states have launched task forces to figure out how to get high speed Internet to rural areas. Some of the state task forces are also addressing getting high speed Internet to low income and under-served populations. It's important that these groups hear about your community and your clients. A lot of these task forces seem to hear only from government and industry officials. One well written letter from an outside group could make a world of difference.

There is no good central list of state activities. To find out what's happening in your state, you can use Google to search "Broadband Task Force [with your state's name here]."; Also, check with the governor's office, the state utilities commission, and the state commerce department to find out if your state has a task force and how to get involved.

This spring's Federal Stimulus Package included almost $5 billion in "grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas, to enhance broadband capacity at public computer centers, and to encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service."; The application deadline just closed, but within a few weeks, you should be able to find out who in your state applied for grants.

The people in your state who applied for the grants need know about the needs of your clients. Watch the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program web site for more information.

Net Neutrality

Getting everyone connected to high speed Internet will not mean much if the large telecommunications companies can go ahead with their plan to control what their customers can see.

Historically, the Internet has operated on the policy that all data gets equal treatment and that the system does not look at the details of the data that is being sent. This is termed "Net Neutrality."; AT&T, Comcast, and the other big telecommunications companies want to change that. They want to be able to control what data goes through their system and how fast it goes through. For example, Comcast may want to slow data for streaming video to everyone except their cable TV subscribers. AT&T may want to slow the data for Skype to force people to use the AT&T phone system.

While there are some bills addressing net neutrality in states, the big fight happening now is at the federal level, in two places.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is drafting a national broadband plan. One critical piece of that plan will be what it says about net neutrality.
The "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009" has been introduced in the US House of Representatives. This bill would protect net neutrality.

The best place to find out what you can do to protect the neutrality of the Internet is the Save the Internet web site.

There are a lot of things you can do. To start, just pick one thing -- write your member of Congress, find out what's happening in your town, or sign up with an advocacy group.

Below are some resources that can help you get started.

Interested in continuing the discussion? Join Sheldon on our Community Call about Broadband Access on August 26th.

Resources: