benton's blog

President Barack Obama will deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 20. But a funny thing happened in the run up to the speech: the President delivered all the punchlines. Well, maybe not all the punchlines and, for thems that watch telecommunications policy, it wasn’t all that funny.

Blair Levin
Brookings Institute
Metropolitan Policy Project
Kansas City Gigabit Summit
January 12, 2014

Kansas City Gigabit Summit
As Prepared for Delivery

It is an honor to kick off this First Gigabit City Summit.

The arc of history is long but every now and then, its curve steepens and you can see the actual moment, not just the gradual sweep, of change.

We are at such a moment.

It entails the creation of a new commons—an information rich commons—that will define a generation of cities.

Happy 114th Congress! On January 6th, the new Congress was sworn into office. Just who are these people are what will they do to impact our communications future? Well, we’re glad you asked.

I believe deeply that our media and telecommunications can and must serve the public interest and enhance our democracy. On this bedrock faith, the Benton Foundation seeks policy solutions that support the values of access, diversity and equity; demonstrates the value of media and telecommunications for improving the quality of life for all; and provides informational resources to policymakers and advocates to inform communications policy debates.

We start off the new year with the good news that the Federal Communications will likely vote on net neutrality at its late February meeting. So we might—just might—be on the cusp of a decision to reverse the disastrous misclassification of broadband that the FCC made in 2002 for cable modem and a couple of years later for the rest of telecommunications.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has been on the job for just over a year. And with 2014 coming to a close, we look back at the accomplishments of the FCC in his first year. Today we look at the FCC’s Lifeline program which provides discounts on monthly telephone service for eligible low-income subscribers.

As 2014 comes to a close, we’re looking at the major accomplishments of the Federal Communications Commission and the first year of Tom Wheeler’s chairmanship.

“We cannot always build the future for our youth,” said President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “but we can build our youth for the future.” Today, the Federal Communications Commission improved education for all our young people by providing the tools to connect every school and library to high-capacity broadband -- and Wi-Fi connectivity that delivers critical education tools right to students’ desks.

This is a huge win for U.S. education.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” philosopher George Santayana once said. It’s an old adage but apt as ever—particularly pertinent for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as it sets about deciding the fate of the Open Internet.