[Davisgig] Fwd: CLIC's First Year and Future: A Letter to Our Members and Board of Advisors
Robert Nickerson
rob at omsoft.com
Thu Jul 23 11:58:56 PDT 2015
Hi
This is a national level group that is advocating for community choice
in broadband decision making.
Putting it out here in case anyone is interested.
Thanks
RAN
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: CLIC's First Year and Future: A Letter to Our Members and
Board of Advisors
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2015 17:51:13 +0000
From: Coalition for Local Internet Choice <ashley at localnetchoice.org>
Reply-To: Coalition for Local Internet Choice <ashley at localnetchoice.org>
To: Robert <rob at omsoft.com>
CLIC's First Year and Future: A Letter to Our Members and Board of Advisors
The letter is pasted below for your convenience and is also available on
our website: localnetchoice.org/connections
<http://localnetchoice.us8.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=09c6fc743c87e862042edd5d5&id=b4153e433f&e=d1bb241e3d>.
Thanks for taking the time to read it. We value each of our members and
advisors, and we are looking forward to CLIC's future.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Members and Advisors of CLIC:
A little over a year ago, CLIC was formed with a singular goal: to unite
a wide array of individuals, government entities, private companies, and
organizations around the idea that our nation’s interests are best
served when communities are free to identify their broadband
infrastructure needs and determine the best path by which their
community can meet those needs. Since then, CLIC has worked to bring new
members into the organization, fight against local Internet choice
barriers, and raise awareness of this critically important issue. We
have been thrilled with the energy and excitement that CLIC and, more
importantly, local choice issues have generated during CLIC’s inaugural
year.
*/CLIC’s Launch/*
With critical initial support from the Ford Foundation, we developed a
strategic plan and mission statement, hired key personnel, developed a
website and Twitter presence, formed an outstanding Board of Advisors,
and began to produce independent content. Thanks in large measure to
the shared vision and generosity of Scott DeGarmo, we formed a strategic
alliance with Broadband Communities, and we now work extensively with
that group to produce and publish content, both in its magazine and at
its conferences. (You can find our article “Economic Development: The
Killer App for Local Fiber Networks” here: http://goo.gl/1pmbrU
<http://localnetchoice.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09c6fc743c87e862042edd5d5&id=a40edd7a84&e=d1bb241e3d>).
We partnered with the Glen Echo Group, a Washington-based public affairs
firm, whose team (particularly Maura Corbett and Ellen Satterwhite) was
instrumental in helping us develop and spread our message. We worked
closely with our allies at Next Century Cities, collaborating regularly
with Deb Socia, Chris Mitchell, and Sam Gill. Also, at the request of
various members of Congress and their staffs, we participated in
numerous educational briefings on the value of local Internet choice and
threats to it.
As CLIC grew, we were frequently invited to support particular kinds of
business models or to take positions on various other policy issues.
CLIC respectfully declined. To us, the issue of local Internet choice is
so fundamental, that it stands on its own, and we deliberately built a
wide-ranging coalition of entities and individuals who all agree on that
fundamental issue, even if they disagree on other issues. We also
positioned CLIC at the confluence of the interests of the public and
private sectors, because local Internet choice is not only a matter of
concern for local governments; rather, it is enormously important to the
business community that localities have the freedom to advance the
nation’s broadband interests.
*/The Wilson/Chattanooga Proceeding /*
Our first year was a very busy and successful one. In July 2014, the
City of Wilson, NC, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, TN,
asked the Federal Communications Commission to strike down the
provisions of North Carolina and Tennessee law that posed barriers to
public broadband investment and competition in those states. This
proceeding provided a crucial platform for a much-need national
conversation about local Internet choice. It also posed a major
challenge for CLIC, as some of our key members and allies, while
strongly supportive of local Internet choice, were reluctant to endorse
a broad interpretation of the FCC’s authority to preempt state (and
local) authority. CLIC met this challenge by again focusing on our core
mission and leaving the authority issue to others.
So, during the seven months between July 2014 and February 2015, when
the FCC granted the petitions, CLIC worked tirelessly to encourage
hundreds of individuals and entities to file comments with the FCC
focusing on the benefits of local Internet choice and the harms caused
by barriers such as the ones before the FCC and elsewhere across
America. CLIC also worked extensively with the media to provide our
side of the relevant factual, legal, and policy issues. In addition,
CLIC drafted or facilitated the publication of scores of articles,
op-eds, blogs, and letters about the merits of local Internet choice and
about the errors and misstatements about community broadband that
incumbent broadband carriers and their followers often espouse.
As we had hoped, the FCC’s written opinion dated March 12, 2015,
strongly endorsed local Internet choice in the course of explaining the
Commission’s decision of February 26 in favor of Wilson and Chattanooga.
Based on the hundreds of comments that it had received – creating by far
the most comprehensive record ever assembled on community broadband –
the FCC rejected the myths about community broadband initiatives that
opponents often almost reflexively raise. In particular, the FCC dived
deeply into the specific requirements of the North Carolina law at
issue, which also appear in the laws of several other states and have
often been touted as necessary to achieve “fair competition” or create a
“level playing field” for private sector. The FCC found that these
provisions are anything but fair and balanced and in fact impose severe,
asymmetric burdens on public entities, stifle broadband investment, and
thwart meaningful competition to incumbent service providers – to the
detriment of local communities, including the private sector.
Not surprisingly, the States of Tennessee and North Carolina have
appealed FCC’s decision, and the matter is currently before the US Court
of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. These appeals focus primarily on
whether the FCC has authority to preempt state barriers, not on whether
the FCC, as the expert agency in the field, appropriately made the
factual findings that it did. As a result, no matter how the Sixth
Circuit decides the authority issue, the FCC’s opinion will remain an
important fact-based tool for supporters of local Internet choice. An
important challenge and opportunity for us in the year ahead is to make
the most of this invaluable decision and the public record the FCC
relied upon.
*/CLIC Day at the Broadband Communities Summit /*
In mid-April, CLIC hosted a one day event – dubbed “CLIC Day” – before
the Broadband Communities Summit in Austin, Texas. The day was filled
with constructive discussion about how communities can preserve,
protect, and, where necessary, restore local Internet choice, with
speakers ranging from community organizers to politicians, business
leaders, and academics. In particular, Professor John Eger delivered a
stirring keynote address about why cities must play a central role in
driving America’s success in the years and decades ahead and about why
ubiquitous, affordable, and open access to advanced broadband
connectivity to the Internet is essential to the future success of our
cities. This engaging CLIC event generated increased CLIC’s membership
by about 10 percent, pushing us up over the 300 mark.
*/Victory in Missouri/*
During the last year, CLIC also fought new proposed state barriers and
worked to shape policies that will foster community involvement in
broadband deployment. For example, when legislation was proposed in
Missouri to create artificial barriers for communities seeking to
provide communications services, we responded. CLIC’s president, Jim
Baller, coordinated a multi-party letter to the Missouri legislature
that noted the damage the proposed bill would do to economic activity
and business opportunity in the state. The letter was signed by a range
of prominent technology companies and national organizations. According
to our allies in the trenches at the Missouri legislature, the letter
played a significant role in halting the initial momentum of the bills
and discouraging the co-sponsors of the bills from pressing hard for
passage. As a result, the bills did not come up for votes on the House
or Senate floors before the legislative session ended. You can view the
letter here: http://goo.gl/DaZrdO
<http://localnetchoice.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09c6fc743c87e862042edd5d5&id=a03d715428&e=d1bb241e3d>.
*/Comments to the Broadband Opportunity Council/*
CLIC also recently filed comments responding to the Broadband
Opportunity Counsel’s request for comments on how federal policies can
better support communities and promote broadband adoption and
deployment. CLIC suggested numerous ways that the Broadband Opportunity
Counsel could help various federal departments and agencies to remove
barriers and facilitate more effective broadband deployments. For
example, CLIC suggested that federal broadband funding should be
coordinated across federal agencies to reduce silos and that federal
broadband policies should enable coordination between all levels of
government to promote use of Federally-funded broadband assets, such as
federally-funded, state-administered transportation infrastructure. The
full comments are available here: https://goo.gl/vlgXqT
<http://localnetchoice.us8.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=09c6fc743c87e862042edd5d5&id=c19c8ef79f&e=d1bb241e3d>.
*/The Critical Year Ahead/*
While CLIC’s first year was largely successful, we still have a long way
to go to establish local Internet choice as the norm for our nation. New
barriers are proposed in the states every year, forcing us to respond
again and again. Also, with the state barriers in North Carolina and
Tennessee now preempted, we still have barriers in many other states
that need to be removed or rolled back. To do that, we must make local
Internet choice as non-partisan an issue at the national and state
levels as it is at the local level.
As we look toward the future, we are excited about the ways CLIC will
continue to further its mission. CLIC is continuing to grow, and it
recently added two new board members: John Eger and Jane Patterson.
John and Jane are fierce advocates of local Internet choice, and we
look forward to the many contributions they will bring to our truly
dynamic Board. We regret only that Charles Benton will not be able to
join us in welcoming John and Jane to the Board. Charles, a giant in
our field for many decades, passed away in April. A good summary of his
amazing life is available here: http://goo.gl/64UAV8
<http://localnetchoice.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=09c6fc743c87e862042edd5d5&id=0c322cde55&e=d1bb241e3d>
In addition, CLIC is hosting another event in conjunction with Broadband
Communities during its Economic Development Conference on September 18,
2015 in Lexington, Kentucky. During the Lexington conference, we will
continue to discuss and explore the theme of protecting local choice.
In keeping with our positioning at the intersection of the public and
private sectors, CLIC will also discuss ways the public and private
sector can work together to advance our nation’s broadband goals. In
particular, CLIC has been developing a major paper on the business and
legal considerations involved in broadband public-private partnerships,
and we will be presenting on the paper during the conference. We will
send an update about this event in the near future, but please mark your
calendars as we would love to see many of you there.
We owe special thanks to our Board of Advisors for the successes we have
had this year. It has been a tremendous asset to have a Board that
includes such accomplished individuals from a wide range of backgrounds,
who deeply share our commitment to local Internet choice. We are
excited about continuing to build the coalition, particularly at the
regional level around the nation.
To all of our members, we are still working to make CLIC the best
organization it can be. To that end, we invite you to share your ideas
and suggestions with us. We appreciate your perspectives and would
benefit greatly from your thoughts. We look forward to working with you
in the year ahead.
With great admiration,
Jim Baller, Joanne Hovis, Catharine Rice, Chris Mitchell, and Ashley
Stelfox
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