How Will Comcast Ruling Affect the Information Health of Communities?

photo credit: ladybugbkt's photostream, Flickr

UPDATED 4/9/10: Both the Knight Commission report and the National Broadband Plan call for setting ambitious standards for broadband availability and a strong commitment to open networks. (The FCC cited the Knight Commission report in the Plan.) So we join the legions of others assessing the impact of the federal appeals court’s decision in the Comcast/BitTorrent case on the implementation of the Broadband Plan and on the information health of American communities.

Austin Schlick, the General Counsel of the FCC, posted a brief blog post summarizing some of the ways that the court’s ruling this week may impact the FCC’s efforts to implement the National Broadband Plan. He acknowledged that, for most of the Plan, the decision will have little or no effect. Schlick noted that many of the Plan’s recommendations “involve matters over which the Commission has an ‘express statutory delegation of authority.’”

Troubling, however, is the potential impact of the ruling on specific Plan recommendations that at their core are aimed at strengthening information equality and the overall health of all American communities. Schlick identified the areas of significant concern in his post:

Among them are recommendations aimed at accelerating broadband access and adoption in rural America; connecting low-income Americans, Native American communities, and Americans with disabilities; supporting robust use of broadband by small businesses to drive productivity, growth and ongoing innovation; lowering barriers that hinder broadband deployment; strengthening public safety communications; cybersecurity; consumer protection, including transparency and disclosure; and consumer privacy.

As the FCC and others continue to absorb the implications of this ruling and recalibrate plans for moving forward, it is important to keep in mind that broadband Internet access is no longer a luxury, but a necessity for navigating many aspects of life in the digital age. These include  getting a job, educating one’s self and children, obtaining and managing important health and financial information,  and accessing government services. And information needs are civic as well as personal.

As the Knight Commission has eloquently stated: “America needs a vision for informed communities. Paramount in this vision are the critical democratic values of openness, inclusion, participation, empowerment, and the common pursuit of truth and the public interest.” Decisionmakers at all levels should keep these bedrock values of American democracy in mind as the debate continue in the weeks and months ahead. Americans, regardless of the communities in which they live, deserve no less.

UPDATED: Read FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s statement in the Commission’s Announcement of its Broadband Action Agenda. Genachowski:  “The court decision earlier this week does not change our
broadband policy goals, or the ultimate authority of the FCC to act to achieve those goals.”