Civil Rights Unplugged

[Commentary] SBC and Verizon are insisting that lawmakers bless their proposal to roll out new digital television and advanced broadband services only to the more affluent. So where is the outrage from the civil rights community? If the pols accede to this special-interest pitch, it will represent a sea change in the bipartisan telecommunications policy of the past 20 years that has required companies that provide video services -- such as cable TV -- to serve the entire community through local franchise agreements. SBC admits to Wall Street that 90 percent of its "high-value" customers will be beneficiaries of its television service but only 5 percent of its "low-value" customers will be wired up. A spokesman for the National League of Cities calls this "red-lining." A leader in the Urban League said that the policy would cause minority and low-income communities to "fall further behind in the deployment of new technologies." The telephone companies' proposal is made precisely for the purpose of allowing them to invest less, and in fewer communities -- rather than more, as the current rules require. And as for their perennial promises of more investment in exchange for legislative favors: Legislators around the country have derided SBC and Verizon for never fulfilling such pledges. Tucker concludes, "Don't get me wrong. I support Verizon and SBC's entrance into the video services market, and I believe that consumers will benefit from it. But these potential benefits should not transform our elected officials into marionettes for two monopolies that want to trample our civil rights traditions."
[SOURCE: Washington Post 10/15, AUTHOR: C. Delores Tucker]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101401679.html
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