April 2016

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) has named David Keyes, the Digital Equity Manager for the City of Seattle (WA), as the first recipient of the Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion Award. Named for Charles Benton, the founder of the Benton Foundation, the award was created by NDIA to recognize leadership and dedication in advancing digital inclusion: from promoting the ideal of accessible and affordable communications technology for all Americans, to crafting programs and policies that make it a reality. The award will be presented on May 18, 2016 at Net Inclusion: The National Digital Inclusion Summit, by Adrianne B. Furniss, Executive Director of the Benton Foundation.

In nearly 20 years of public service in Seattle, David Keyes has used data to document community needs and direct programs, been committed to racial and social justice, and built a movement over time by engaging local elected officials, businesses, education partners, and community organizations in solutions. Seattle recently unveiled a new Digital Equity Action Plan. NDIA’s Director, Angela Siefer states, “In 1997 David was appointed Seattle’s Community Technology planner and within a couple of years he was a leading figure nationally in the movement we then called 'community technology'. Despite being busy leading the City of Seattle’s model digital equity programs, David continually lends his leadership skills and thoughtful guidance to state and national efforts. NDIA is proud to award David the first Charles Benton Digital Equity Champion Award.” “Charles Benton dedicated his life to ensuring everyone, especially the most vulnerable, have affordable access to the communications tools and the skills required to fully participate in our society,” said Benton’s Furniss. “David Keyes embodies that dedication."

WiredWest is a legal cooperative of 31 western Massachusetts towns that has put forward a detailed proposal to provide “last-mile” high-speed Internet access connections to homes and businesses in a rural region suffering from poor Internet access. The project has encountered delays in obtaining approvals and funding from a state agency called the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), which is responsible for providing $50 million in subsidies to solve the region’s Internet access problems.

In this case study, we detail how WiredWest plans to finance the construction of a state-of-the-art fiber optic network and then operate and provide services over that network. WiredWest has already secured deposits in the amount of $49 from more than 7,100 pre-subscribers, developed a financial model, and drafted an operating agreement. It has taken a regional approach to spread risk and achieve economies of scale, making the model nationally relevant. The WiredWest cooperative network would connect to an $89.7 million “middle-mile” fiber optic network built by MBI to connect community institutions such as libraries, schools, hospitals, and government buildings in 45 towns considered “unserved” (because they lack any cable service), plus 79 other towns that had partial or full Internet access services. While the middle-mile network was meant to be the starting point for last-mile networks serving homes and businesses, at the time of this report’s publication, only one of the 45 unserved towns, Leverett, had built such a network. WiredWest would extend fiber’s benefits to a far wider region. So far 24 of WiredWest’s member towns have authorized borrowing a total of $38 million and most of those towns support going forward as part of WiredWest. Under the plan, they will pay about two-thirds of the network’s costs. To cover the remainder, they will need to receive a portion of the $50 million in available subsidies. But at the time of this report MBI had tabled any decision on the project amid a wider review of the last-mile program by the administration of Gov Charlie Baker (R-MA).

A Senate source says look for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to use some of his time for opening remarks on the Senate floor April 21 to urge Republicans to back a full-Senate vote on the renomination of commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to the Federal Communications Commission as soon as possible.

In an FCC oversight hearing in March, Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL), said it was past time for the Senate to confirm Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, suggesting it was a promised confirmation that has yet to be honored by the other side of the aisle. Ranking Member Nelson pointed out, and Minority Leader Reid is expected to echo, that at the end of the last Congress, Republican FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly was confirmed without waiting for a Democrat to pair him with in that process on the promise that Republicans would confirm Commissioner Rosenworcel quickly in the new Congress. Ranking Member Nelson says that Minority Leader Reid told him Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the promise to then Commerce Chairman (and Commissioner Rosenworcel's former boss) Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) that her nomination would be moved without delay in the new Congress. Commissioner Rosenworcel's renomination was unanimously approved by the Commerce Committee late in 2015, but the full Senate has yet to vote.