The Obama administration wants to provide greater access to fast Internet broadband service in towns and cities across the country by encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to remove legal barriers to competition by Internet service providers. It also wants to help local communities improve their service with government loans and grants.
The modest proposals do not require congressional approval and are part of a series of measures President Barack Obama is rolling out before his State of the Union address next week.
Obama will detail his broadband plans Wednesday in Cedar Falls, Iowa, a community that has taken steps to provide high-speed Internet to its residents.
In a White House video before the announcement, Obama says: “You know what it feels like when you don’t have a good Internet connection. Everything is buffering, you try to download a video and you’ve got that little circle thing that goes round and round, it’s really aggravating.”
“There are real world consequences to this and it makes us less economically competitive,” he says.
Jeff Zients, director of Obama’s National Economic Council, said Obama wants to use the bully pulpit of the presidency to press the FCC, an independent regulatory agency, to “ensure that all states have a playing field that allows for a vibrant and competitive market for communication services.”
The administration’s stance would put it at odds with major cable and telephone companies such as AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc. that currently provide Internet service, often with little or no competition. Obama has already angered the industry by calling for new FCC rules that treat Internet service providers as public utilities.
Nineteen states place restrictions on municipal broadband networks.
The FCC is already considering requests for Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, to prevent state laws from blocking the expansion of their broadband projects. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in June that communities that want to provide their own broadband service “shouldn’t be stopped by state laws promoted by cable and telephone companies that don’t want that competition.”
A new White House report says that while 94 percent of Americans living in urban areas can purchase an Internet connection of 25 megabits per second, only 51 percent of Americans in rural areas have access to such Internet speeds.
The report also says that because of lack of competition three out of four Americans lack a choice for such Internet service.
The White House also announced that the Commerce Department would promote greater broadband access by hosting regional workshops and offering technical assistance to communities. The Department of Agriculture also will provide grants and loans of $40 million to $50 million to assist rural areas.
A council comprising more than a dozen government agencies will also seek to remove regulatory and policy barriers that hinder broadband competition, the White House said.
(AP)
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3 Responses
have to wonder what those cities and towns will have to agree to with Obama to get this broadband. Just like Obama did with Obamacare
Internet in ny is basically a monopoly. Only one carrier cable or timewarner can service any particular area. Fios is a new type of internet and recently rolled in but because it was charging double what optimum was charging optimum raised its price. There is no competition and internet alone is costing me over 60/month. This is what monopoly laws were created for but for some reason there is an exemption.
1. Local governments have been known to give exclusive rights to cable companies. Obama doesn’t have the authority to ban this, but Congress probably could try. It isn’t clear if the Federal government, rather than the state, can regulate such monopolies since they are authorized by the state governments and apply only within the state.
2. The biggest problem in getting companies to invest is Obama’s (i.e. the Democrats) to turn broadband into a regulated utility under which companies get a set profit with no incentive to improve service (similar to old phone monopoly, which was finally broken up leading to inexpensive phone services, cheap cell phones. and much technological innovaton).