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What is the Debate About Municipal Broadband?

Some people argue that access to high-speed Internet service ("broadband") will soon become a basic public necessity -- like water, gas or electricity. They believe that Internet access will shape economic competitiveness, community development, education and health care. They see full and fair broadband access as a fundamental civil rights issue. They are concerned that many Americans currently do not subscribe to broadband at home, in part because service does not reach them or is unaffordable. They worry about the fact that a smaller percentage of Americans have access to high-speed Internet service than in at least twelve other countries in the world.

In response, many local governments are considering whether to build their own networks. Some believe that new wireless Internet technologies might allow local governments, or public-private partnerships, to make broadband more available and affordable.

But some people argue that governments shouldn't get involved in providing broadband. They point out that telephone and cable companies have invested huge sums of money in building high-speed networks. They warn that public networks would unfairly compete with these private networks and discourage telephone and cable companies from investing more to build and improve them. Some argue that if governments use tax money to build their own networks then people who don't use them will have to support service for people who do. Fourteen states have passed laws forbidding local governments from offering broadband service (but California is not one of these states).

And others who support the idea of governments providing high-speed Internet are concerned that they won't go far enough to ensure that it is accessible to underserved groups -- the kinds of people that have the least access to broadband at home. They include low-income people, African-Americans, Latinos, seniors, English language learners, the disabled, and rural residents.

Our conference addressed this debate. Participants were asked to think about whether governments should commission broadband networks. If so, how should these networks be paid for and operated over the long term to maximize public benefits to underserved communities? Should governments ensure that additional resources are available to assist underserved communities to use broadband to meet their economic, civic, and cultural needs?

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What is a Consensus Conference?

We think that to answer these questions democratically, we need more public participation in the municipal broadband policy debate by those who are least well-served by broadband at present. To answer these questions well, we need well-informed public engagement, which calls for new models of public education and participation. This is especially urgent in California as political attention focuses increasingly on municipal broadband, sparked by initiatives to build wireless networks in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Sacramento, and Los Angeles. The public needs to evaluate the lessons of these ongoing initiatives and influence others that will follow in their wake.

A consensus conference promotes meaningful public education and participation in technology policy. The idea was developed by the Danish Board of Technology and has been used by government and community groups around the world. A consensus conference engages and informs the wider public, while alerting industry and government to unforeseen community needs and reactions to technology policy. Benefits include:

• Bringing together community members with technical experts in public dialogue aimed at supporting the community's understanding;
• Putting community members center stage in forming technology policy;
• Raising social concerns and identifying community needs that are often absent from negotiations between industry and government;
• Promoting reasoned conclusions about complex technological, economic, and cultural issues;
• Transcending control by any particular stakeholder in the issue, strengthening the panel's ability to offer their authentic and informed opinions.

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How Did the Conference Work?

The conference involved:

• Assembling a diverse community panel of Silicon Valley residents from underserved groups;
• Educating them about the issues through discussion of briefing papers;
• Convening a public hearing at which policy experts and stakeholders offered a range of perspectives in response to the community panel's questions;
• Facilitating the community panel's formation of a consensus statement of policy recommendations, which was translated into Spanish and Vietnamese;
• Disseminating these recommendations to government, industry, and advocacy groups working on broadband;
• Generating further public involvement in broadband policy through follow-up forums and publicizing the panel's policy ideas to local governments and the media.

An advisory panel of stakeholders from government, industry, and advocacy organizations oversaw the fairness of the process.

To ensure that the community panel's recommendations sparked discussion among decision-makers, the organizers held a follow-up event in April 2007, convening over 60 representatives from local governments and community-based organizations around California.

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What Was Accomplished?

The project had an impact on Silicon Valley and California by:

• Increasing the public's understanding of municipal broadband policy choices
• Increasing public participation in municipal broadband policy debates
• Sharing strategies for engaging the public in technology policy debates with others

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About This Site

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Page Contents
↓  What is the Debate?
↓  What is a Consensus Conference?
↓  How Did the Conference Work?
↓  What Was Accomplished?
↓  About This Site