Imagine if 19 million Americans lacked access to electricity. And imagine that number getting much worse in rural America, where a quarter of that population was cut-off from even the most basic levels of electrical service. Imagine in areas where there is access, the cost is such that 100 million people failed to get to subscribe to it, inevitably hitting lower economic individuals the hardest.
Now imagine, when faced with such access and inequity issues, a handful of big electricity providers stood in the way of solutions to fix it. Worse, they convinced politicians and supposed-regulators that “the state of the free market of electricity was doing just fine,” all the while convincing them to impose rules that actually destroyed free market principles by favoring their monopolous practices and stifling greater access, service, innovation, and solutions coming from other sectors.
Imagine that the US, a country that prides itself on being an economic powerhouse, found itself ranking 16th worldwide on penetration, speed, and price of electricity. Imagine that ranking dip deeper to 31st when speed is isolated.
This would be unacceptable. Yet this is the current state of internet broadband in our country. And instead of leading us out of this mess, our politicians and federal regulators are making the problem worse.
Internet broadband is to the 21st century what electricity was to the 20th century.
State leaders are increasingly erecting barriers to entry, innovation, price reductions, and speed by adopting rules prohibiting cities from jumping ahead with municipal broadband and preventing city-led innovation like your see in Chattanooga, TN with their universal Gig fiber roll-out. Texas is one of 20 states which, while claiming to have the best climate for business, is, with its allegiance to the innovation-less big ISPs, actually stifling economic activity in what could be its most promising sector: tech. While cities like Austin and San Antonio are able to attract something like a Google Fiber initiative, most cities will not.
Our national leaders are doing no better. Today, we saw proposed rules pass the FCC which further exasperate this problem by beginning the process of dismantling Net Neutrality. The big providers already control the access and speed of our internet service, these proposed rules now give them control over content and the ability to control which content comes to us at what speed.
In this innovation economy, do we really want to cede control of our most promising innovative tool to gigantic internet providers who, at best, are not interested in helping us move ahead and, at worst, just might have an interest in slowing things down?
Cities are the economic engines of our nation. State and national leaders seem to be teaming up with Federal regulators and big corporations to make our job of inspiring innovation, fostering entrepreneurship, giving our young access to the best 21st century tools, and bettering our economies much more difficult.
I call on the Texas Municipal League, the National League of Cities, and the US Conference of Mayors to explore these issues and add them to their legislative agendas. I also call on fellow city leaders to take the lead on this issue. Immediately, let’s address these two issues:
1) Call for a FCC rule prohibiting states from banning municipal broadband. Cities in states with such bans should begin actively lobbying their state legislature to reverse such rules. It is a counterproductive to our economic development goals. We need to begin thinking about broadband as a utility.
2) Pass city resolutions against the proposed FCC rules during this period of public comment. TML, NLC, and USCM can lead the way in creating sample resolutions and encouraging their member cities to adopt them.
City leaders must have a long-term perspective on this issue. The consequences for our citizens, families, educational institutions, and businesses are real and they are looming. It took leadership in the early 20th century to devise a regulatory program aimed at ensuring that every home and business had access to reliable electricity. Likewise, we are in need of leadership here in the dawn of the 21st century to get us the tools we need to lead the world in this innovation economy.