Deal or No Deal: FCC Undermines Community Broadband

DEAL OR NO DEAL: FCC UNDERMINES COMMUNITY BROADBAND
[SOURCE: Center for Digital Democracy, AUTHOR: Jennifer Harris and Jeff Chester]
[Commentary] The FCC's decision to weaken community oversight of video and ultimately broadband providers, approved on December 20, 2006, was overshadowed in the press by another decision to approve the AT&T/BellSouth mega-merger. But the FCC's new " Rules to Ensure Reasonable Franchising Process for New Video Market Entrants ", in limiting the authority of a local government to determine how its community places value on its right of ways in exchange for video service, diminishes negotiating power and oversight by both local government and citizens. If value isn't placed on building out the public interest portions of the key digital infrastructure that connects most American cities, then communities across the country will suffer. Powerful corporate media and telecommunications companies will be making decisions about a city's digital future--not local citizens or their elected representatives. For communities either economically challenged or geographically isolated, the loss of meaningful community oversight over vital broadband connections threatens their future. In order to reverse the damaging consequences of this FCC ruling, the movement around net neutrality needs to take a more offensive approach to enact a proactive broadband agenda that promotes community media on national, state and local fronts. In the broadband era, there must be protections for both neutrality and community, without such safeguards, we can expect the same old treatment in the new media world.
http://www.democraticmedia.org/issues/cabletv/DealorNoDeal.html