FCC Unveils Connect to Compete Plan
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday announced the “Connect to Compete” venture at the Pew Charitable Trust in Washington D.C. Connect to Compete will be overseen by One Economy, a leading non-profit focused on wide scale access to the Internet. According to the website statement “Connect to Compete is a national private and nonprofit sector partnership created to increase broadband adoption and digital literacy training in disadvantaged communities throughout the United States. The initiative is designed to help residents improve outcomes in education, health, and employment through broadband opportunities and technology solutions”.
According to Genachowski, low-income individuals, including seniors, minorities and those living in rural areas, “disproportionately find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide and excluded from the $8 trillion dollar global Internet and all of its benefits”. One third of the population of the U.S., nearly 100 million Americans, are not connected to Broadband.
Nearly 18 million of those without access could not gain access even if they wanted to. Genachowski also stated that 50 percent of today’s jobs require some technology skills — and this percentage is expected to grow to 77 percent in the next decade. A recent study indicated that mending the broadband gap could create $32 billion in annual economic value.
The primary goal of the project centers around the agency’s plan for USF reform, the specifics of which have yet to be fully disclosed but are believed to be largely pulled from AT&T and Verizon lobbyist recommendations. According the the FCC’s website this reform could net “$1 billion or more per year in benefits for wireless consumers alone”. The website fails to reveal that the plan will likely drive up prices on consumer Broadband bills by raising the cap on USF fees charged by carriers above $6.50 per month.
Nearly $25 billion has been poured into large and small telecom bank accounts over the years (in addition to billions in additional subsidies), and yet somehow rural homes, low income areas and our public libraries still lack adequate bandwidth. Consumers must ask themselves where all of the influx of cash and subsidies has gone, especially considering the fact that all the state and federal subsidies issued to phone companies by now could have easily wired every U.S. home with fiber to the home several times.
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