Broadband Opportunity Coalition letter calls for balanced regulation
In a letter to the FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, members of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition (BBOC) - a group that includes the Urban League, the League of United Latin American Citizens, The Asian American Justice Center, and National Council of La Raza - urged the FCC to make sure that proposed net neutrality regulations are consistent with efforts to bridge the digital divide.
The BBOC calls the goal of open Internet an "essential goal" in bridging the digital divide but cautioned that net neutrality laws must be crafted in a delicate and egalitarian manner.
The letter warned:
"If the history of civil rights in America teaches us anything, it is that facially neutral laws and regulations are not always applied neutrally to the constituencies we represent. We certainly don't want that to happen to Internet regulation too, and we're very concerned that, despite your very best intentions, some aspects of net neutrality might not turn out to be neutral as applied to our constituencies."
The Alliance for Digital Equality - a Speed Matters partner - also sent a letter to Genachowski. They wrote:
"We all agree that a fair and open Internet with high-speed and mobile broadband is vital to our society in ensuring that minority and low-income communities are not shut out as full participants in the New World Economic Order that will truly transform global communities in the 21st Century.
David Honig of the BBOC's general counsel requested that the FCC incorporate public input on "questions that relate to the civil rights of broadband policy" during the rulemaking process. A National Broadband Plan is due in front of Congress by February 17, 2010.
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