Summit Speakers Want More Broadband Access For Minorities, Criticize Net Neutrality

The opening speaker of a summit focused on improving broadband penetration to minority and low-income areas of the country, and criticized advocates of network neutrality for being out of touch with the needs of minorities as he attempted to enlist the mantle civil rights leader Martin Luther King into his cause. "[L]et us remember the worlds of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 'All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face-to-face with another problem,'" said Julius Hollis, the founder of the Alliance for Digital Equality, in prepared remarks. "If we fail to find common-ground on the issues before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission relative to the rulemaking governing broadband adoption, the financing of broadband infrastructure and the over-arching issue of net neutrality, the long-term socio-economic chaos that will be inflicted upon our society would be far too devastating to comprehend," warned Hollis.