Telecom Providers Headed (Slowly) In Right Direction
Posted on July 22, 2016 by Samuel Pastrick
Tags, Telecommunications
As we previously reported, CUB participated in a rigorous public strategic planning process to create a regional Digital Equity Action Plan (DEAP) for both the City of Portland and Multnomah County at large. Earlier this spring, with CUB adding supporting testimony, both the City and the County passed DEAP resolutions.
The DEAP’s mission is to bridge the digital divide for excluded community members within the City and throughout Multnomah County by providing affordable access to broadband and the necessary tools to take full advantage of that access.
As was reported earlier this spring, updates to the Lifeline program should assist the DEAP’s mission by helping lower-income households reduce the cost of accessing broadband. CUB, however, believes it is also incumbent upon internet service providers to improve access and affordability. In this area, two Internet service providers (ISP) – Google Fiber and Comcast – deserve some recognition.
Last month, Comcast announced a new partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to expand the federal government’s “ConnectHome” initiative by offering its “Internet Essentials” program to all HUD-assisted households within its service territory.
In 2011, as a condition of their purchasing NBC Universal, Comcast launched the Internet Essentials program, but only for low-income households with children eligible for the free National School Lunch Program.
Comcast – to their credit – has updated the program on several occasions, improving speeds (currently at 10mbps), piloting initiatives for low-income seniors and community college students, as well as broadening the eligibility requirements to include children enrolled in the reduced-price school lunch program and for families with children outside of public schools.
By adding as many as 2 million homes to the program’s rolls, July’s announcement should prove to be the program’s most impactful change to date.
Google Fiber, on the other hand, has also promised needed digital equity advances, but their timeline remains somewhat uncertain.
For those unfamiliar, Google fiber is an ISP underneath the Alphabet Inc. umbrella. An important point of clarification: Alphabet is the holding company that owns Google Fiber, as well as a separate company in Google (Chrome web-browser, Google search-engine, etc.), and several other independent entities.
Google Fiber offers gigabit Internet service over a fiber-optic infrastructure. How fast is gigabit service? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) currently defines “high-speed” broadband as download/upload speeds at or exceeding 25mbs. It goes without saying, then, that 1000mbs gigabit service is significantly faster.
The story with Google Fiber is that almost three years ago, the company expressed interest in entering the Portland-area market. And since that time, both the City and State has all but bent over backwards and jumped through a ring of fire to woo them and their ultra-fast Internet service by adopting new City ordinances and even a State-wide tax incentive for “eligible” fiber projects.
The company hired staff and even worked with City officials earlier this summer to re-negotiate the original franchise agreement to include a “Digital Equity” fee earmarked for DEAP projects, while at the same time remaining coy about their deployment timeline.
To the dismay of CUB, digital equity partners, and consumers overall, the company announced last month that an official rollout is on hold until further notice. The news is disappointing because of the delay for DEAP funding as well as the company’s other touted efforts like free gigabit service in Public Housing and well-below market-rate “lower-speed” (25-100mbps) service. CUB continues to monitor this situation, so stay tuned for additional updates.
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09/05/22 | 0 Comments | Telecom Providers Headed (Slowly) In Right Direction