IRREGULATORS RESEARCH MEMO: The Corporate-Takeover (“Regulatory Capture”) of the FCC’s Diversity Council Must Halt Now.

Imagine This: The FCC has been tasked to put together a council that will solve the Digital Divide once and for all. Trust Us. It will work.

FCC ANNOUNCES WORKING GROUP MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNICATIONS EQUITY AND DIVERSITY COUNCIL

• recommend solutions to reduce entry barriers and encourage ownership and management of media, digital, communications services and next-generation technology properties and start-ups to encourage viewpoint diversity by a broad range of voices.
• will make recommendations for addressing digital redlining and other barriers that impact equitable access to emerging technology in under-served and under-connected communities.
• will propose solutions and approaches on how the FCC can affirmatively advance equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity in the telecommunications industry

And yet, as we will discuss, there is no equity nor diversity!

But the Stakes are Enormous, Over $150 Billion. The NTIA is about to give out $42 billion of BEAD money and America just spent $14.2 billion the low income broadband subsidy ACP, among lots of other buckets of cash. — Anyone want to place bets how much money goes back to the telecom and cable companies, even though they helped to create the Digital Divide?

The chart above details just a few of the groups on this Council and the collection of all too willing funding sources. This isn’t all of the financial connections with the CTIA wireless association, the MyWireless, (who?) the NCTA, the BIG cable association, the USTelecom, the BIG telephone association, AT&T, Verizon and Comcast — who are all members of most if not all of these associations. (We differentiate the size of the associations, as there are many smaller organizations.)

IMPORTANT: In Part 2 we detail that almost 90% of all of those on this Captured Council have one or more financial ties to the companies or the associations or other related organizations.

NOTE: Why are the associations of the companies giving funding to non-profits, and other tasks like filing at the FCC or being on advisory committees? This allows the companies to be shielded — a hands off position — — so they can take actions as a group to avoid investigations of anti-trust or other legal issues that comes up when an industry wants specific public policies to pass to help the Corporate position, and not the public needs.

Let us be very clear.

The FCC Communications Equity and Diversity Council and virtually all of the other Advisory Committees have become controlled by the what is now a consortium for collusion to make sure that AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Charter and a few others, as well as their trade associations, such as the CTIA wireless, or the NCTA, cable association, or their lobbyists, their corporately funded ‘astroturf’ groups, the bought-off -consumer non-profits, including everything from Black and Hispanic groups, or LGBT or Asians or seniors or disabled, are all lined up through massive funding from these companies. Add to this the coin-operated research groups, or the media companies that the companies control and it is clear that:

IMPORTANT: Regulatory Capture in this case is based on INTENT by the Providers to discriminate, to bias and to influence the FCC’s public policies and it has helped to create the Digital Divide and overcharge you, your family, friends, businesses and well all of America.

How cozy? The phone, cable, wireless, broadband ISP providers-All together, and some of their associations, including:

• Verizon
• Verizon Wireless
• AT&T
• AT&T Wireless
• Charter Communications — Spectrum, Video, Voice and Broadband Connectivity Services.
• NCTA, The Internet and Television Assoc.
• Comcast — Xfinity, Business & Xfinity Mobile
• T-Mobile, Mobile Voice & Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)
• CTIA, The Wireless Trade Assoc.
• USTelecom, The Telephone Trade Assoc.
• Wireless Infrastructure Assoc.

NOTE: AT&T represents multiple lines of business, including wireless mobile services, or ISP broadband, and thus All of the different cable, wireless, broadband internet, phone companies are represented, just not counted as a separate legal entity/member. And, if you examine the chart, we see that these other members of this council have corporate board and financial ties and get grants and funding from the providers.

Some of the Non-profits, and organizations:

• Connected Nation
• National Urban League
• US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation
• Brookings Institution
• Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC)
• Joint Center for Politics and Economic Studies

Our Position: If you rig the Council, the companies, as a cartel, have thus rigged the votes, the questions that are asked, and control not only what gets discussed but what is not addressed.

Connected Nation as Chairman of the Diversity Council is the Definition of Regulatory Capture, and the Model of how to Use Non-Profits to Directly Harm Our Democracy.

The idea that Connected Nation is currently the chairman of the Committee shows just how captured the agency is. In Part 2 we give more details about the history of this telco-created organization. Telco created?

It is called conflicts-of- interest to have the chairman of a diversity and equity council have only the very companies that created the Digital Divide, are responsible for ‘redlining’ and who have kept prices excessive on all services. and yet we see Connected Nation’s board are all of the major companies. Must be a coincidence.

Connected Nation announced: The new Connected Nation Board of Directors joins an impressive group of national corporate leaders including:

§ AT&T, James W. Cicconi, SEVP of External and Legislative Affairs,

§ CTIA, Steve Largent, President & CEO. The Wireless Association

§ USTelecom, Walter B. McCormick, President & CEO,

§ NCTA, Kyle E. McSlarrow, President & CEO,

§ Comcast Corporation, Joseph W. Waz, Jr., SVP Public Policy Counsel,

§ Verizon Communications, Thomas J. Tauke, EVP, Public Affairs, Policy, ,

§ Connected Nation, Mark K. McElroy, CEO Connected Nation, Inc.

§ TIA, Grant E. Seiffert, President, (Telecommunications Industry Association)

These other new groups receive funding from the Companies.

§ Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Ralph B. Everett, CEO,

§ National Consumers League, Sally Greenberg, Executive Director,

§ World Institute on Disability, Kathleen Martinez, Executive Director,

Connected Nation, ten is essentially in bed with the phone, cable, broadband, internet and wireless companies and their new directors, Joint Center or National Consumer League, are also funded by the companies in multiple ways — and this shows how to stack the deck.

Moreover, referencing back to the list of companies and associations on the Diversity Council shows that not only are the new directors on the Council, but many of the companies overlap.

How Much Money are We Talking About?

THE STAKES: Detailing the $150 billion in government subsidies,

In March 23, 2023, the FCC disclosed that there was almost $150 billion dollars on the take from the different state and federal government programs.

“Stakeholders successfully collaborated to engage policymakers in addressing the needs of opportunity communities for broadband connectivity. As a result, the federal government passed several pieces of legislation between 2020 and 2021, providing $146.8 billion in funding for broadband infrastructure deployment, digital equity initiatives, and remote learning and telework.”

The major federal funding legislation that passed to provide broadband funding during the pandemic included:

• American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), which created the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), a $7.171 billion program to help schools and libraries support remote learning.
• Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provided economic assistance for American workers, families, small businesses, and industries.
• Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, in which Congress appropriated $3.2 billion for the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program.
• Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), in which Congress dedicated $14.2 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) as a successor to EBB,
• $42.5 billion in deployment funding in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program,
• Plus $2.75 Billion in the Digital Equity Act.
• Along with billions invested at the state and local government level, these pieces of legislation provided significant funding for broadband infrastructure deployment, digital equity initiatives, and remote learning and telework during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The BEAD money will be distributed via the State Broadband Offices, which most appear to be captured.

Some analysts now claim that the areas that have the highest unserved and underserved areas are ripe for large funding — and the largest companies are the very companies that created this Digital Divide and failed to properly upgrade their territories.

Compare this map — which shows the AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink (Lumen) territories, which now control the original Bell state telecommunications public utilities — is overlapped with a map of the Digital Divide Areas as told by the FCC. And one can see just how Verizon et al failed to do the network upgrades.

Thus, what we believe this chart shows is the size of the unserved and underserved areas in AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen territories, — the original Bell companies.

And yet, some telecom analysts claim that these same companies and the cable companies are best suited to get the next $40 billion dollars.

AT&T, Charter have biggest BEAD opportunity — studies claim.

“AT&T and Charter Communications are best positioned to benefit from the multi-billion-dollar Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program based on state-by-state allocations and the presence of each operator in those states, reckon analysts that have broken down the numbers.

“The larger the presence an operator has in a state with a sizable allocation of BEAD funding, the greater the opportunity there is for it to see benefits from a build-out near its existing footprint and fill-in additional pockets across its DMAs [designated market areas] with edge-outs,” the analysts at ISI Evercore surmised in a research note. “In that context, we highlight that AT&T and Charter over-index to states that received the lion’s share of BEAD allocation.”

“ISI Evercore’s review arrives a few days after the White House announced how more than $40 billion in funding for broadband will be distributed via the $42.5 billion BEAD program. Texas, with $3.3 billion, led the way, followed by California ($1.8 billion), Missouri ($1.7 billion), Michigan ($1.56 billion) and North Carolina ($1.53 billion).

“The top five states accounted for 24% of total funding allocation, while the top ten made up 40%. “We note, however, that the sheer magnitude of the +$40bn broader subsidy program suggests there is scope for all operators to benefit,” ISI Evercore explained.”

The takeover of the FCC’s Diversity Council helps to block basic material facts, investigations and holding the companies accountable for creating the Digital Divide.

As we will discuss, this Council was supposed to help close the Digital Divide, and it went through over $14.2 billion in ACP funding for 23 million low-income families that as of June 2024 have been cut off from the $30 dollar subsidy.

As we just documented,

• The ACP funding only covered a portion of the total bill, averaging $86 with taxes included.
• Not one member of this Council brought up the fact that America doesn’t have serious high speed competition.
• Not one member brought up that overseas prices are a fraction of what we are paying in the US.
• Where’s the calls for investigations?
• Overseas a triple play with broadband, internet, cable and phone is about $34–45 dollars; while, in the US it is $220+ and growing,
• Overseas, a 5G broadband wireless connection can cost $10-$20 for unlimited services — over 1000 GB, averaging $.03 cents; in the US, Spectrum was charging $14 a Gig, and on average it can be $5–7 dollars.
• Not one of these ‘esteemed’ groups even mentioned that America had plans to upgrade the state telecommunications utilities multiple times, starting in the 1990’s and customers paid thousands of dollars extra for services they never received.

Instead of anyone even questioning the underlying issue — that prices are unaffordable, or that areas of America were never upgraded, with too many urban and rural areas still under and unserved, we continue to get the corporate pablum.

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The captured Council has supplied a shopping list of new government funding for the non-profits and the especially subsidies for broadband — which mainly went back to the Big Telecom and Cable companies.

Recommendations from Public Convening

1. The federal government should continue the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).
2. There should be greater outreach efforts to educate families about the benefits of the ACP. Those outreach efforts should include many more languages than English.
3. Make it easier for families to enroll in the ACP.
4. Broadband service providers can implement their own low-cost broadband service programs with quality service and comparable speeds as high-income households and provide broadband connectivity centers within communities.
5. Non-profit organizations, and community anchor institutions (such as libraries) can develop Wi-Fi centers within local communities funded by the federal, state, local government and/or in partnership with industry.
6. To identify and overcome the challenges to broadband adoption, affordability, and greater participation in digital literacy skills training programs, broadband service providers and federal and state governments must collaborate and leverage the trusted relationships that anchor institutions have with their local communities.
7. To develop broadband adoption and digital literacy skills training on a national scale, the non-profit and private sectors need to develop best practices for broader collaboration.
8. The federal government must ensure states receive funds to develop their digital equity plans. During the pandemic, keeping all Americans connected to the internet presented unique challenges. However, the collaborative efforts of digital inclusion advocates, ISPs, and the government achieved significant success in “Bridging the Digital Divide”.
9. Over 9 million households enrolled in the Emergency Broadband Benefit, and over 18.5 million households are currently enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program. Between 2019 and 2021, 1.4 million homes gained broadband availability, including 727,000 rural homes.
10. These efforts made great strides in ensuring affordable and reliable internet access for all. As we look to the promise of the future, it is important that all stakeholders work together in providing access to affordable, high-speed, quality Internet to every community.

“Stakeholders” is another word for — everyone has to be in the room — who doesn’t contradict what the Corporations and their extended web to put their agenda above the public interest.

Part 2: The Details: Who Is in Bed with the Corporate-Takeover of the FCC’s Advisory Council.

Over 90% of the total current roster of the FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC) have one or more recipients of funding from the Big Telcos and Big Cablecos and are being used as part of the corporate marketing and lobbying plan.