Kim Keenan

One glimmer of hope from the pandemic: The Universal Service Fund (USF), the government fund designed to make sure everyone in the United States is digitally connected, finally may get an overdue overhaul. While lawmakers and policymakers long have recognized the need for a rebuild, the pandemic made it clear that reform no longer can wait.

Imagine a government program that would connect millions of financially-challenged households to broadband in their homes. In a world of “If it sounds too good to be true…” you can expect that skepticism reigns. Fortunately, the Affordable Connectivity Program is not only a real program, but Congress allocated about $14 billion to help lower-income households pay for internet service. The catch?

While making broadband available is an obvious first step to closing the digital divide, getting people to use it as a way of life takes more than bringing it to their doorsteps. Over the coming weeks and months, Congress, industry and stakeholders must work together to formulate a multi-pronged approach that not only tackles broadband availability and affordability, but also the accessibility component of the digital divide. The National Urban League’s Lewis Latimer Plan sh

This White Paper outlines four incentives to cultivate minority ownership of commercial wireless spectrum. The Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) calls for both Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to develop market-based incentives that advance competition and innovation, while increasing minority and women entrepreneurship in the wireless communications space, especially in spectrum licenses and the operations of assets.

1. Restore and refine the Tax Certificate Policy for immediate application to secondary market transactions, enabling sellers to defer payment of the capital gains taxes on the sale upon reinvestment in comparable property. (This initiative requires legislation.)
2. Consider voluntary secondary market transactions with minority business enterprises (“MBEs”) and women-owned business enterprises (“WBEs”), collectively MWBEs, as factors in determining whether to report to Congress that the mobile wireless marketplace is competitive. This initiative can be adopted by the FCC under its existing statutory authority.
3. Incorporate voluntary secondary market transactions with MWBEs as part of mergers and acquisitions regulatory review, including whether to give carrier rule waivers relating to ownership. (This initiative can be adopted by the FCC under its existing statutory authority.)
4. Award carriers a bidding credit when, or after, they engage in voluntary secondary market transactions with MWBEs in wireless auctions. (This initiative can be adopted by the FCC under its existing statutory authority.)