 Welcome, my name is Susan Crawford. I'm a professor here at the law school. I'm unaffiliated with Berkman Klein But I'm delighted to be invited by Berkman Klein to kick off this lunch for you today a couple of housekeeping announcements before we begin Please keep in mind that these webcasts are recorded and kept forever, so This you are in the process of potentially being captured. This is a moment of legacy for all of us We will be taking questions both in the room and from people online using hashtag dividing lines or Hashtag BKC Harvard so either one will work We will have a lot of substance to convey today and then There will be quite a period for questions as well. So be thinking about things you'd like to ask so as liberal democracy crumbles and people lose trust in public institutions and Masses of people feel abandoned by the instruments of government and particularly by the centralized Institutions of government that seem to be ignoring their needs one of our vital responsibilities as policy makers and lawyers and involved citizens is to make visible The strains the defaults the deficits the things that are missing the gaps so that eventually everybody wakes up things begin to change and we arrive at a place of Care and respect and trust and engagement For everyone not just the wealthiest members of society One of the big big issues in America right now is actually an issue around the world is the digital divide lack of Internet access is tied to every other policy a developed nation might want to work on Dealing with climate change making sure your people are educated getting the best possible health care making opportunities available to everyone from every walk of life Making sure that issue comes before the public in a way that is visceral and understandable is a Vital need and I am more than pleased. I'm actually gushing with delight overly delighted that today we get to see the world debut of Series of films that Mariah Smith has been working on now. Let me talk to you about Mariah Smith. I First met Mariah when she was an undergrad at Harvard at the college studying economics She came to me with a very special story Mariah is from Kansas City and she had seen firsthand What happens when a private actor shows up promising internet access? But then does it on the basis only of demand and the payment of a fee Without thinking of it or without the city thinking of it as a utility that should be available to everyone I'm talking of course about Google fiber and the very colorful plans That were announced to the world with enormous panache and press conferences galore and balloons in 2011 Mariah had witnessed all that as a high schooler in Kansas City Before coming to college and had really gotten concerned about the fact that a dividing line was left between the traditionally wealthier part of Kansas City where people were demanding fiber access from Google and truest Avenue and the place on the other side not subject to restrictive racial covenants for real estate Historically where poor people lived truest Avenue was such a stark dividing line for Google fibers installation Everybody's learned a lot since then but and Mariah has continued to marry her great Concern for social justice with an awareness of the power of technology and particularly of internet access She is a documentary filmmaker She made a film during college called one nation disconnected working with the Harvard Law School Documentary Film Center for the last couple of years She's been by my side working on a host of projects having to do with fiber access in America understanding the drivers for the digital divide in America and the deficits for the nation that this stark harrowing really reality brings so her ability in particular to Make what is hidden in plain sight visible to all of us to ensure that we have a human face on What is kind of like a absence of air not being able to breathe not being able to connect not being able to have the opportunities for your family that Wealthier people might have because of internet access her particular ability to pull all this together is deeply moving to me And I think that you will very much enjoy what she's about to show you Everything about what you're about to see is the product of Mariah Everything she scripted it. She thought about it. She found the production company. She did the interview She was there with the camera. She traveled the country this is her Thing and I couldn't be prouder of her than I am today I know you're not supposed to say you're proud of people like that put some in a spot or something But I really am proud of you. I'm really delighted that this is happening and this is the first time We're gonna do this at home first and then Mariah will show the films or they will be shown at other national Conferences and my hope over time is that this becomes The human face the way that people understand this issue so that eventually we lurch towards a better set of policies in America So with no further ado, I give you Mariah Smith and dividing lines I'm deeply grateful to Susan and she's the hero and the visionary and so many of these issues so thank you and Thank you all for spending your lunch hour in a lecture hall. I I know that we're short on time and we we want to leave time for discussion So I'll try to keep to my script and not go into too many details But I want to share some of the stories behind the videos and the videos that we should be making in the future about Exactly what Susan said, which is putting a face on this divide Access to the internet quality access is essential to so much of modern American life Preparing to and applying for jobs enrolling children in school keeping track of constantly changing Workshops communicating with teachers children online banking Communicating with doctors doing homework research social networks basic communicating even the 2020 census is slated to go online The list goes on and on and it grows every day It seems absurd for me to stand up here and tell you what you already know that this is a topic that touches all of our lives Growing up. I didn't look at internet access as much more than a door But a door with infinite possibilities behind it little did I know for too many students in this country that access that I Took for granted is a luxury that those doors aren't all equal in their power in their possibilities behind them And that for some the door doesn't exist at all I Can credit as Susan described very well. I can credit Google fiber specifically for drawing me to this issue this web of issues When it rolled out its gigabit fiber network in my hometown of Kansas City Google fiber opened the eyes of a lot of people to this need for super fast reliable data transmission But that's a story for another day fast forward six years, and I think this is an issue that's more relevant than ever From Appalachia to San Francisco Disparities and internet access are creating a collective deficit and education and employment and opportunity for millions of people across the country Among the quarter of Americans without broadband in their homes, which is essentially a connection fast enough to stream a YouTube video Many cannot afford the monthly bill for service and others just don't have the option to connect Less than half of us households living on under twenty thousand dollars are connected And in stark contrast to that over ninety three percent of wealthier households report having in-home internet access And non-whites are much more likely to lack connectivity numbers statistics pie charts sharing these findings with friends drew a fair share of blank stairs a sort of okay and reaction and The question I had for myself was how do I make this disparity visible? And it turns out that storytelling the oldest form of human connection is the way to do that While working on a small film project in college. I met parents teachers Librarians in both New York City and back home in Kansas City I also met Rachel a young woman wise beyond her years who grew up in Brooklyn without an in-home internet connection or a desktop computer Yes, she had her cell phone, but the data cap triggered after one week out of a month and She had to do research for her AP classes. She had to apply to college. She had to write reports and format resumes She spent those years waiting waiting in line at libraries to use the computers with fast access to the online world And this is this is the branch in Brooklyn that she visited most often the library branch And these are the hours of the library and It's not just that she had to wait for these particular hours There was a there's a list in the library to sign up to use the computers and after 30 minutes You have to get off the computer everything that you had on there is wiped And you have to sign up back in the back of the queue and wait for the rest of the line to continue And that's how she completed middle and high school and applied to college With Rachel leading the way we traced her steps back from high school to the library She depended on and back to her home This is Rachel. Well, these are her hands and I guess you're wondering why you see her hands Her name isn't Rachel either her parents decided that they wanted her story out there in the world But not tied back to them They didn't want her face on camera or her real name mentioned in interviews and they use the word shame to describe why Retracing the routes that Rachel had to maneuver at night in order to complete her homework changed the picture for me While other teenagers are making deliberate efforts to stay offline for a certain number of hours a day to read hard copy books and talk To people in person a sort of privilege of disconnecting Rachel was busy scrambling to find a reliable internet connection and a computer that she could use for more than a few minutes at a time I knew I had to do something about this lucky for me as I was diving deeper into this topic as a college student here Professor Crawford adopted Harvard as her new home base and I had the privilege to work with her on these issues And I've made it my mission this past year To dive into uncovering what these divides look like for people across the country who's connected who's not Why and what are people doing with high-speed high-capacity internet connectivity? The short answer to that is they're improving their lives drastically and saving lives This lunch talk could be a week-long long conference in terms of individual stories to cover And I've selected a few short snippets to share with you today as well as three videos Two of the videos focus on the rural divide and the political shenanigans going on at the state level to keep the status quo And then the final video is a short trailer, which I hope you'll share. You'll help me share widely In the lead up to the longer and capstone documentary in the series Which I'm producing right now and will debut at the net inclusion conference in April Numerous non-profits foundations community leaders and researchers have contributed to the call for videos as tools and their ongoing work raising awareness and mobilizing policy makers Now, I'm sure you're wondering what we mean by internet access I want to take a moment to quickly dive into two things that I think are really important quality and distribution Broadband is an ill-defined term I met people from rural Tennessee to the urban core of Kansas City who cannot stream a YouTube video or upload a Word document given the slow and unreliable speeds and their connections and mind you they're all paying for these connections for this service Many people in this room would say that they have broadband. Do we all have the same broadband? I think the short answer is no and this is a major part of rethinking Telecommunication services for this century under former chairman Wheeler the FCC increased the standard definition of broadband From four megabits download speed one make one make up to 25 three But that was a fight and recently the FCC chairman threatened reversing this and lowering the standards again Signaling a rapid race to the bottom. I think he realized that was not such a wise decision and withdrew the proposal But I would challenge the 25 three standard definition because the internet is a two-way communications process Interactive and participatory if we're serious about people being more than passive consumers Speed does matter and it matters a lot. We download and we upload files images videos We live stream and now we're headed into a future of artificial and virtual reality The need for symmetrical speed equal download and upload speeds is growing For the purposes of speaking about the status quo today I'm considering internet access as an in-home connection not mobile phones that meets the standard 25 three definition Three-quarters of Americans don't have a choice for provider And there are people in urban and rural areas who don't have a wired home at all This means that all the things we do like empower all children to learn and to create with technology Like empower towns to use energy sensibly To be the advanced healthcare nation all of these are imperiled without ubiquitous quality internet access And then the second point is Distribution which should be a number two under quality This is at the heart of what I'm getting at today Nearly 30 years after the debut of the World Wide Web the ability of Americans to access the online world varies widely But who are the nearly quarter of Americans who don't have access to high-speed internet in their homes? And why aren't they connected so quality and distribution essentially what's basic and for whom? And now let's move on to Tennessee I Visited Tennessee in the midst of the state's enthusiasm for solving the rural gaps in internet access last summer the state released a study of Businesses and individuals finding more than a third of Tennessee households reporting additional income from using the internet and 24% of households running a business from their home almost a quarter of people in Tennessee run a business from their home a Third of the businesses surveyed by the state said that broadband was essential when determining where to locate and an even greater fraction of Residents deans that essential when finding a place to live over the past year I've spoken with mayors who are losing residents and businesses across the board however the moment I asked about solutions their voices fell Why is the talk of solutions mired in resignation and in some cases in fear what's going on here? So I dug into what's going on in Tennessee to paint a picture of it, and I'll share with you now the two Tennessee videos I work in farm is a lot of work. It's full-time work Even though the area is rural we still have to do everything online that everyone else does From a farm point of view in regard to using the internet ordering a part Things like that that people take for granted. They just don't do that here It just all depends on the day the speed the weather It's an obstacle How could you how could you operate your office without internet without broadband? If you've not experienced it you have no idea how hard it is to get anything accomplished We're in the rural area Surrounding Chattanooga Chattanooga's gig city to fiber optics and look what's provided to them It can also be provided to us in the 2000s Electric power board decided that they wanted to build a fiber optic network to every single home and city that's served by the Power board and that is everyone Since then we have really transformed our speeds We then had one gig to start with but now we've advanced the point where we have 10 gig if an average American might be getting 25 bags down and 15 up We're at 10,000 as our maximum which is a substantial difference infrastructure is not just about roads and bridges and Water mains it's about making sure that you have access to the web which provides you so many goods and services In today's world Internet is a public good. It's essential to economic development and quality of life We don't do the internet so that anybody can watch HBO cheaper than they could with another ISP the reason we do it is because it Fundamentally enhances our quality of life and makes us more prosperous as a city Once we got a fiber optic network it allowed us to dream about the businesses that could be built here And now we see those flourishing so our footprint is a 600 square mile footprint We serve customers on this side of the road or literally people on the other side of the road that we cannot provide Them with our fiber services and a lot of times when I'm talking to those people They'll say well my neighbor across the street has it. Why can't I have it and I have explained to him unfortunately? You're outside our electric footprint and right now the law just does not allow us to do that This is really about the incumbent service providers that are out there. These are incredibly powerful interests in our state Legislature they spend a lot of time making sure that legislators know their point of view and they've tended to carry the day Our laws have to be made for Expanding opportunity in our city not for protecting interests that are powerful in the legislature in Chattanooga We work really hard to change the laws to allow us to go outside our footprint and Nearly offered the option to other cities and counties We haven't been able to do that and that truly is I think unfortunate and harms people of Tennessee If you have a better option, that's what you're gonna go with that would be fiber optics But you know competition is a good thing, but it's not been allowed The money's there the interest is there and the only thing that's keeping us from getting it are the Telecom companies that have the monopoly on it and want to keep it that way Everyone should have it We shouldn't be discriminated against because our lawmakers feel 10 megabits enough for those country folks A lot of small towns are dying in the United States people are fleeing those towns We have our challenges as it relates to the infrastructure that we want to see as part of our future Broadband and fiber are hugely important I think it's one of the first amenities and indeed necessities that folks ask about when they think about moving to our community So for us, we'll be irrelevant if we don't have good connectivity. It's not a amenity any longer It's a necessity public sector is not supposed to compete with the private sector in Tennessee if there's an availability through the private sector What we found as a private sector AT&T Charter Comcast gets you only so far in many cases and we realized that our town was somewhat hamstrung In 1999 when that bill was passed AT&T Comcast and Charter came to our town in a rush Well, we started talking about providing it and assuring us. Oh, no We will give you anything you need as soon as you need it. Well six years later The white horse had not come AT&T Comcast and Charter had not been truthful with any of their promises When you have put regulatory restrictions on any competition when you take the tax dollars and subsidize that business for doing what they're in business to do and They're making billions of dollars of profit and the people have no direct say on what the product will be That is not a free market. That's chronic AT&T Charter Comcast. I mean their business folks. They're making an economic decision There's nothing weird about that in our society where the rub is for me is do what you say you're gonna do or Allow us in the public sector to maybe figure out some ways that we can we can take care of our residents because The future is now we can't afford to wait another 10 years and see how things play out as a state senator in 2015 I introduced new legislation that said we're just going to remove the regulatory restrictions that were contained in the 1999 legislation while lobbying money was placed on the hill with lobbyists just crawling like an anthill in opposition to my legislation I Found out through back channels that a member of the Commerce Committee Intended to add an amendment that was written by AT&T it actually would have been worse than nothing and So I realized I was going to have to put it on the shelf till the next year the governor in 2017 came out with his own legislation when I was reading that bill I got a turquoise highlighter If something smelled like AT&T I highlighted it with turquoise and The bill ended up having a lot of turquoise the governor's legislation actually says that they will give the giant corporations money if they will provide 10 megs down in one make-up I said give them a Tom Tom drum and a kerosene lantern they can communicate just as efficiently with that that is a Travesty I heard a senator say we have nothing. I know we'll be excited if we can get three megs down in one make-up And I say you won't be excited you will be sorry That's the information highway in the winter like molasses That infrastructure is totally inadequate. Why in the world would you squander the money to do something that is inferior? So if you're gonna buy a turkey buy a fat one because you're gonna pay for the bones get the fattest turkey you can and that's fiber In the 21st century you're doing a disservice to go out with anything less Good jobs education medicine Agriculture all the things that depended on this and in rural Tennessee and in fact in rural America We have subsidized those giant corporations that have actually kept us in the dark We can do better We can do a lot better And we can figure this out. There is a will and there is way across this country did the same thing with telephone lines Why not brought in? When the people unite in saying Enough is enough. We've been promised this Why aren't you letting this happen call it to account those elected officials who? Ignore the voice of the people and listen to the voice of a few Wildness it's important to note that that story is not unique the FCC the Federal Communications Commission wants to clear away Regulations the FCC voting along party lines to repeal net neutrality slow internet speeds just a tip So as you can see there are plenty of layers, and I wanted to create these two snapshots Specifically so that advocates organizations governments have a synopsis of the problem in the context of human life and human experience and Mayors who are just trying to do what's best by their residents The state imposed restrictions on municipalities getting involved in internet access are not unique to Tennessee In fact as of today 21 states have varying levels of restrictions on Municipalities looking to either provide telecom services or build out the basic telecom infrastructure to everybody Here's a prime example of small towns of cities with the grit and the resolve to consider solutions to what they see as one of The biggest threats to their economic survival Thompson station for example is not just competing against American towns They're competing against the rest of the world and their residents can't even upload high-resolution images to their websites Now I hope you'll allow me to point out that these companies are not evil They're by and large great American success stories, and they want to maintain hefty profits and Dividends for their shareholders, but in some cases they're abusing their power You met Anita in the video and this is a picture of her husband and part of her farm Anita pays $99 a month for a satellite service her only option if we can call it an option for internet access I focused for internet access and I Guess she so the other option quote-unquote because we had a big discussion with Anita about options And the other option is to tap into her phone lines and get DSL Like two decades old and she right now can't even stream a YouTube video with that She wouldn't be able to access email efficiently And I focus these two short videos on Tennessee because I think the picture of backdoor politics of inverted priorities And if a whole bunch of people who really want to make the status quo better, I think that's a picture that crosses state lines And this is about as bipartisan an issue as we can get economic development social equity Small towns and a few state legislators are fighting to help the public sector deliver something that the private sector is Failing to deliver to people like Anita If the big companies fail people still need quality internet access and they should have a right to devise ways of fulfilling that need But unfortunately, that's not the narrative today And now I want to move on to Cleveland, Ohio. This is Bill Callahan He's retired, but he works every single day He's figured out what's going on and has been going on with internet infrastructure investment in his home city Which I learned is trying to get people to call itself the land instead of Cleveland Bill is a longtime community activist and he's been working on connecting low-income and elderly residents with computers and internet Subscriptions long before the term digital divide made its way into headlines and certainly before anybody has said digital redlining About a year and a half ago Bill convened a number of computer centers and advocacy groups to Strategize how to help their residents take advantage of AT&T's new access program Which was supposed to provide more affordable broadband options for low-income households to their surprise Some of the people they were working with were declared ineligible for the new discount program Which offers low-income residents for between five and ten dollars a month Download speeds of up to ten megs. So not even the FCC broadband standard But it was still promising for people Bill and his colleagues set out to figure out what was happening. Why were low-income residents ineligible for the program designed for them? They went to officials at the federal level Nothing, so they mapped the FCC's broadband data, which it's also important to note is Self-reported by companies So it's kind of a best picture scenario and they found that AT&T has withheld fiber-enhanced Broadband improvements from most Cleveland neighborhoods with high poverty rates Those ineligible households About a fifth of the city in red turns out couldn't get AT&T connections of three megabits per second download speed That was then the computer that was then the access programs minimum requirement In other words AT&T couldn't offer its discounted services, although sub par at barely ten megs To everyone who qualifies because the underlying infrastructure wasn't there They didn't build it out in these neighborhoods because AT&T deliberately skipped over low-income neighborhoods When deploying their infrastructure Those residents just couldn't even sign up for the access program This cherry-picking of wealthier neighborhoods isn't unique to Cleveland the same team led by bill mapped cities in Ohio and Michigan and found the same pattern of investment or lack thereof It's a clear slap in the face to consumers and entirely Unmitigated today by regulatory authorities low-income residents are often overpaying for services that are sub par And they're being priced out of fast reliable service altogether I want to introduce you to another character This is Joanne Elkins and she spent her entire life 32 years working for AT&T She began as an operator at Ohio Bell and her retirement is vested today in AT&T a company that she still holds dear to her heart Today Joanne lives with her 200 pound dog named Jack, which she calls little precious In one of the neighborhoods redlined by AT&T Her street is just a stone's throw away from the major crossroads of museums of hospitals and music and music halls in downtown Cleveland and you know that the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Clinic are connected to high-speed fiber When I was visiting Joanne a few weeks ago The flu was spreading throughout Cleveland and the Cleveland Clinic was telling people not to go to the doctor's office But to stay home and to connect to their doctors online That sounds pretty ideal, right? It's it also presupposes connectivity and quality connectivity and Joanne's connection just wasn't fast enough to connect to that platform I want to draw attention to the fact that Joanne lives well above the poverty line She lives in the gray house at the bottom of the screen and owns three other properties in the neighborhood And her reality is still only one of two options again I don't know if options is the right word, but that's the word we use Joanne can subscribe to speeds of well under three megabits per second for $22 Which was only in the past few months discounted by AT&T after these stories started coming out Or she can subscribe to Spectrum which advertises speeds of up to of at least 25 megs for over $70 a month and that's just the beginning rate This is the sort of quote-unquote competitive marketplace that the telecom industry has created The only reason that Spectrum built out high-speed internet networks in Joanne's neighborhood in the first place Was because the company and was because the company had invested in their infrastructure a little before AT&T did when the old State franchise bill was still in effect and the city could And the city could tell the company that they had to build out and invest in every neighborhood Successful lobbying on the part of big telecom however Resulted in the state eliminating municipal franchising of cable providers So when AT&T was updating its infrastructure a little after Spectrum the city couldn't force it to invest in Joanne's neighborhood Joanne doesn't want to take down her former employer which she calls an empire today She merely wants this empire to use its vast resources to consider her To provide for her what she feels is a basic service And a little more background on Joanne's story today Daryl Parks the civil rights attorney who represented Trayvon Martin's family in Florida is representing Joanne and three other women in Cleveland in a formal complaint against AT&T with the FCC on the basis that the company is systematically discriminating against poor neighborhoods and this is under section 202 of the communications act of 96 As of December 2017 However, the FCC decided to repeal net neutrality and this section will no longer apply to internet service providers like AT&T Because they they're not classified as common carriers under new rules When I was in Cleveland, I had the privilege of spending a day with this force of a woman to Wanda Davis She's a business woman and a community organizer who founded the Ashbury Community Center nearly two decades ago Wanda saw that her friends colleagues neighbors were feeling were being left behind. I was 20 years ago Today she's working with seniors who need to access health care services and social security benefits and she and with unemployed parents who have to navigate finding and applying for jobs and Wanda helped me convene a focus group when I was in Cleveland This is the Ashbury Community Center And this is the focus group we talked about life in Cleveland computers internet access cell phones Facebook versus Instagram all of it Many of them are grandparents and only half of them have a non-mobile internet connection at home The others rely on cell phones with data plans for mobile citizen Which is an organization that relies on federal funding to subsidize services for low-income Americans and that federal program today Is called lifeline today lifeline is on the line the FCC if the FCC chairman gets what he wants Wanda's friends and neighbors will lose their only connection on their cell phone Over 12 mil 12 million Americans rely on lifeline and that's not even a third of the Americans who are eligible for the program Right now though the head of the FCC is considering cutting off 70 percent of lifeline subscribers by restricting their providers To the big dogs AT&T Verizon Sprint and US Cellular no more mobile citizen if the chairman gets his way And even these piecemeal solutions and cell phone is not a replacement for in-home broadband But even these piecemeal solutions are being threatened and Now I want to jump to San Francisco the tech capital of the world and introduce you To Yolani Garcia who immigrated to the United States from Honduras over a decade ago and has lived on both the east and west coasts She now lives with her husband teen daughter Cici and extended family members right outside San Francisco And she works at a restaurant in the Mission District She wants what every mother wants for her child to grow up with as many opportunities as possible Yolani has only one quote-unquote option for internet service in her neighborhood and she and her husband simply can't afford it Yolani knew that I was sharing her story with you and Wanted me to send this message as long as some of our children have the access to essential tools and others do not The American dream continues to wither away Divides will continue to grow. Why is it Yolani asks that something can be a Necessity for people of a certain zip code of a certain income of a certain race, but not for others and This is Cici. This is Cici in the middle of the picture This is Yolani's daughter She's a sophomore in high school and lives in one of the five million US households with school-aged children who do not have broadband internet service at home Either because it's not available or because they can't afford it Low-income households and especially black and Hispanic households make up a disproportionate share of that five million Cici's mother is part of the one in ten American adults ten percent of the population one in ten who is considered a smartphone only internet user Reliance on smartphones for online access is especially common among younger adults non whites and lower-income Americans And the question is do we want to wait until Cici? joins the one in ten adults and Within the city bounds the city bounds of San Francisco 150,000 people out of a total population about 800 850,000 don't have wired broadband at home Does anybody know what this is a picture of what we consider people who lean against buildings? To try to get the Wi-Fi signal No, okay So he's considered a leaner. That's a term. I used Actions I learned actually here in Boston when researching this and I've heard public officials use it in Cleveland and San Francisco in Kansas City and it's essentially students younger subteens who in the evenings go up to community centers library schools and Crowd around to use the Wi-Fi signals and a lot of these institutions have started Turning off their Wi-Fi because they don't want children congregating around their buildings at night And then I know we're running. This is Cici walking after school to the library and I I know we're running really short on time. I wanted to give a few snippets about Oregon, which is Where I found smaller towns independence Oregon LeGrand Oregon that are using high-speed fast fiber networks To bring health care to people and to save lives like little Maya's life but I think these might be stories given the time for another day and I think it's So this is just briefly because I have the picture That's a robot that they're using in a hospital in LeGrand to connect specialists In in more urban areas from Boise in Portland to High-risk patients in the hospitals and these kind of rural more isolated towns and they couldn't do that without Fiber networks high-speed not 25 megabits, but a thousand megabits per second. That's what they need to do this and And every doctor I spoke to said the next frontier is getting this kind of service to people's homes So that people are connected and can interact with doctors from their homes Okay, and I want to get to the trailer Right now this is so it's only a minute and a half And I'm currently producing the longer video of all of this and it'll be much more narrative less Explanatory than the Tennessee videos much more character-driven and focus on stories in Cleveland, Oregon and San Francisco So I'll play the kind of the lead up to that video FCC the Federal Communications Commission wants to clear away regulations the FCC voting along party lines three to two to repeal Net neutrality slow internet speeds just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the digital divide in our city Even though the area is rule we still have to do everything online that everyone else does How could you how could you operate your office without internet without broadband? We have subsidized those giant corporations that have actually kept us in the dark. That is not a free market That's chronic capitalism About 60 million people who live in the United States do not have high-speed internet at home Having access to a smartphone is not enough. If you don't have internet in America You will be left behind because of the lobbying efforts of these big incumbent telecom players They're effectively lobbying and buying Campaigns banning the government for getting involved in these digital inclusion issues. Why? Why are they afraid of this video will be ready April 18th, that's good. That's okay. Yeah, clearly do not know how to do April 18th, and then I'll debut at the net inclusion conference in Cleveland, and then it'll be online on the website So I hope you'll share the trailer in the meantime I know we have to wrap up and in a minute But I I think the bigger picture is that what gains traction in Policy circles today is talk of smart cities of up-and-coming apps of flashy new platforms And in the midst of all of this we can't afford to lose sight of the power of Infrastructure to deepen divides and to disenfranchise people I think we have a social and economic a political responsibility to make sure that everyone has access to the basics And it's just a question of what are we defining as the basics? We have to make this a voting issue at the federal level our senators and representatives need to hold the FCC accountable To the people that it is supposed to be protecting those sitting in our state capitals wheeled a heck of a lot of power, too I'm from Missouri, and I refuse to change my permanent address because I want to say and who's sitting at the table in Jefferson City In conclusion, I just I want you to know that for every person whose story I shared today I got to know dozens and dozens more And if in some way these case studies and these stories or these connections would be useful in the work that you're doing I would love to collaborate Now and following the rules of Tuesday luncheon I guess we can open up the floor No way we're gonna say thank you again. That was really tremendous So Mariah in order to change anything you need to have leadership and a crisis you've clearly outlined the crisis Where do you see the leadership emerging from? Do you want to be president? Ridiculous But what what else what do you see? I think so I think it's a multi-layered issue. I think we need to start out by Preventing the powers that be right now from moving us backwards So instead of lowering the definition broadband, we need to put pressure on the FCC to increase the definition broadband We need to put pressure on our current centers and representatives to make sure that the FCC is protecting consumers We need to make sure that our state governors are not handing out our tax dollars to AT&T to provide subpar services And then in the next presidential race, I think this is an issue that of that a that a candidate needs to take up And we need a vote on it. All right other questions. I see a hand Hello Thank you so much for sharing that along the same lines as Who are the leaders and influencing governors and lawmakers, etc What are the arguments that those lobbyists in big country companies what arguments beyond just giving money? What arguments are they making such that they're convincing these folks to side with them So that we can better equip ourselves with arguments to really counter that Right. That's a good question. And in some cases it's probably more than just the arguments they're making but That's separate. I think the argument is we're a private company We need to make money for our employees for our shareholders, and I'm not debating that at all I think that's entirely true. I think the bigger question when we step back is Is this a service that we want to treat like that like a normal good? So when incomes rise you pay more for something for better quality But unlike other normal goods we're treating internet access as an equalizer and we want it to democratize things And we want people everybody to be able to connect and kind of quote-unquote lift themselves up by their bootstraps But we're not if we leave it in the hands of private companies. We're not That we're never going to get to that point. So I think The major argument is they need to make money and going into Joanne's neighborhood in Cleveland If 40 of people live below the poverty line, they're not going to subscribe for just $60 $70 a month subscription rates So it doesn't make economic sense for them to invest in that neighborhood And I guess the responses is it up to them to be making that decision where they invest The question is in the back and there's also a mic coming from behind your head Congratulations on your piece. Um, I don't know if you took a dive into the the political aspect of this if there's A gerrymandering going on that intentionally disenfranchises folks who might not have who might not be in rural areas on it Do you think do you do you ever uncover if it was part of the political? Machinery if they're trying intentionally to disenfranchise folks because Argument being if they don't have internet access, maybe less informed less likely to vote all those things that go along with having internet access that's that's a really good point and beyond kind of Beyond a story here a story there. I don't have Numbers um on that but I think I mean I think that's what's happening and spending two days with Anita and her husband And talking to their neighbors and their family that live down the street That's exactly how they feel like they're being cut off From political discussions from news from kind of modern american life around elections or not elections Question from this quadrant somebody right there in the back. Yeah All right. Thank you so much for that talk. It's amazing and I love it so much. Thank you Thank you. I I love it so much. I The problem is so real to me. I started actually a small local phone company. I have a lot of Customers in north camber just in our neighborhood who do not have access to broadband either Which is a whole other they they're advertised broadband, but they do not get it They get point four My question is that a lot of this isn't necessarily new how communication companies will withhold or in many ways prevent Innovation like with AT&T first inventing FM radio and then you know with holding it from the public for a decade So my question is do you fall one way or the other on whether or not? Telco at large should be a private enterprise or a public one I think that basic communication services should be on the public side should be a public utility because we've left it in the hands I think for too long for private america and we've Given the telecom industry a lot of power To the end that we were hoping that quote-unquote competition would breed that sort of innovation and connect everyone But it that's not what's happened. Um, and so I think we need I do think we need to re-evaluate How we approach it, but I'd love to talk to you about your So from this quadrant, I'm I'm I'm prioritizing a student type looking for students Is there a student type back here? Yes Okay, I'm gonna go we're gonna there any other students If there aren't any I will I will give up on this, but I'm gonna try with the student approach. Yes Hi, hi How do you reconcile the idea of something is better than nothing? Especially when it comes to as the state senator said Like, you know, they wanted to give three up one down and that wasn't enough so no I think that's a really thank you for asking that that's a really good question. I think So that's something I've grappled with a lot because so we heard about the the tennessee state broadband accessibility act Which legislates really low speeds and we heard about mobile citizen So subsidized cell phones for people who don't have a wired connection at home and I think that They're they're not solving the issue. They're sort of Coding the issue with what appears to be a solution even AT&T's access program in cleveland So I think they're Fundamentally important right now, but I hope we get to a point where they're entirely unnecessary and that these piecemeal solutions are not How we solve this this issue So I have a question Do you have any I guess hopes or expectations for these like upcoming satellite broadband projects from say like SpaceX and one web and those ones um Yeah, facebook and different different companies have Like balloons and satellites and different kind of technologies that they're trying To lift off the ground I think I do think that We cannot Put all of our eggs into the hands of private companies again. I think we've done that for too long And this is the reality that we have Um, I think that yes companies should be innovating and trying to connect more people, but I also think that politically um and in A legal context we have to approach internet access a little more intentionally The question is yes, I'm gonna come right back here with the mic Running I'm gonna have to reach over the diet coax coming All right So how did chattanooga get to do something so awesome? And could they solve this problem by just annexing all the area around them? So they those areas are now part of the city of chattanooga and therefore their residents are eligible for the service Thanks you well to answer the first part of the question Um Chattanooga had an electric they use their electric utility company. So they used to um like most cities and towns they provide electricity they have a City-run company that provides electricity To rate payers and so they decided Years ago that internet access was going to be as important as electricity and they needed to get Into this business and provide fiber to everybody To answer the second part of your question. I don't know how those laws work and I don't know how chattanooga could annex for example, um Anita's town Right right and because so the state law as it stands so it's a 99 It's a 1999 state law that prevents e pb chattanooga's e pb electric utility board Um, and any other electric company that's providing internet services From providing that service beyond its initial electric service territory So if they weren't providing electricity to Anita's house 25 years ago, they can't provide internet service to her house today Yeah Thank you for your work. Um, my name is quintons under van. I'm a cambridge city counselor I just had a hearing in the city council on this issue last week And we didn't make a lot of progress, but at least we had a good conversation about the issue I'm curious if you have any thoughts about how we can address this issue in cambridge We do have a digital divide even here in cambridge. So How can we address that? I think one One thing you really need on your side is someone in city hall and in On city council who's kind of pioneering this issue Exactly that's exactly. Um Could cambridge build what do you city manager city manager? We need a city manager on our side Um, could cambridge go municipal and build a network itself. I think that's a question of how much Of how much money the city wants to invest in this And I I think when we were looking at For example in cleveland with municipal franchise agreements that the state got rid of I think cities should have more power over dictating Where if we're leaving this in the hands of private companies where those private companies invest in their infrastructure And that's just not the reality. So it cambridge doesn't have that much power to decide where Or comcast or any other company serves which is Do you have something to add to that? Other questions right around here anybody sol Hi, i'm sol tenobam. I'm a Founder of upgrade cambridge.org which is a group that's trying to bring municipal broadband to the city of cambridge specifically Around issues of digital equity because in cambridge While virtually every high-income family has a broadband connection Only 50 percent of the low-income families have a broadband connection I mean even though our baseline connection rate is high. There's still a Um an income Disparity, so I encourage you all to go to upgrade cambridge.org join up On this fight, but that wasn't really my question. It was actually a what I hope is an easier version of susan's first question What are the success stories? Where are the Where are the beacons of hope who who is doing this right right now that we could actually model ourselves on? Mm-hmm. I think on the one hand we have the power to vote people into office that are that have the right ideas So I think people who are calling their legislators who are figuring out who are working with senators like tennessee senator janis bowling um To figure out where other people in the state legislatures stand are doing the heavy lifting in terms of States that are moving ahead. I think oregon's a really good example of a state that 20 years ago decided that internet access was important for everybody and has been taking advantage of federal grants and of their own state money to build out fiber rings And then in terms of towns that are building out their own networks to try to solve these gaps Westminster, mariland. So ting the public-private partnership there is a really good example And there are others and I'm happy to share them after the talk Yes Hi, Sebastian Diaz. Thank you for your videos. They were amazing and I think I'm hoping they get the point across to a lot of A lot of different I the videos were great. Sorry my question is if if Internet access becomes more of a public good. Do you think that there would be more people involved in making their own networks? Do you think and did you see that? I know that If it were the case where someone could run a cable across the divide to Anita's house on a in a in a pirate way to share their 10 gigs to them. They probably would not see a significant flip or degradation in their bandwidth So do you think that people are going to be using more pirate methods or community methods win these networks go public I guess Well, I think people are using pirate methods today to fill the gaps I just heard yesterday a story About a friend who lives in manhattan in new york city Who has no option for service and has been tapping into the link new york city wi-fi system to get just basic service In his apartment. So I think that's already happening today but I think if we as A national strategy approach internet access differently in a public utility version that it should be High-quality basic for everybody and affordable. I think that We'll find other ways to fill to fill those gaps Okay, last question right right up against the wall You just mentioned it briefly now and I was wondering if maybe you Could expand upon the potential for public-private partnership And if you've seen that and hopes for the future given that so much power and money is with these large corporations And how government can use the power that they have to bring folks to the table and really push for Internet for all right and use the power that they have and the technologies that they have because they do have advanced technologies um, I think there are a lot of different versions of public-private partnerships and it's definitely A way that cities are starting to solve these gaps and divides themselves By selecting You know companies to work with them to either build out the network or the cities will build out the network and then the companies Um can provide services and operate the network on top of it and come and compete over prices um I think san francisco is looking into this right now building out a municipal network with a private partner or few again in west minster mariland ting Huntsville alabama, there are different cities who are that have tried different um enter in the process of Looking at different public-private partnerships, and I think there's a lot of promise there. I do think that It should be the city leading the way and defining the terms and not the private company and the partnerships I think that's important and I think that's kind of the layer that we need to get to and thinking about internet access Is a basic service for everybody So go forth and make this a voting issue go to dividing lines.org That's the website for the films and thank you again mariah for your passion and your harnessing