Elections Positive Sign for Local Communities, State Advocates Say
State and local advocates cautiously praised Tuesday election results and President Barack Obama’s victory. Local governments will face major considerations involving municipal broadband, USF reform and FirstNet, they told us in interviews. “We're pleased to see that team continue,” said Joanne Hovis, president of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors board. She referred to officials in the Department of Commerce, Agriculture and at the White House. She praised American Recovery and Reinvestment Act initiatives and focus on broadband as “really successful” and a “credit” to the administration. NATOA doesn’t foresee another recovery bill but is happy with the administration’s overall direction of national communications policy, she said.
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The election marked a shift in how people view government, said Chris Mitchell, telecom director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The “idea that local government is the enemy” took “a real beating” in the Tuesday election, he said. The legislators and industry forces pushing for a stronger free market philosophy “got crushed,” as did the forces spending a great deal of money on political donations, he said. Those entities “got almost no return,” he said. Mitchell cautioned of the telecom industry’s lobbying power and how municipal broadband is “something that could be easily demagogued” and misrepresented among local legislators. There’s a “more measured tone” with the political victors, he added. Big carriers and cable companies may have pushed for more favorable treatment in a Romney administration, he said. Now, on the federal level, people are “less likely to see negative things being done,” he said.
Municipal broadband has received support from the Obama administration and FCC, said Hovis, who “hopes to see that support continue and grow even stronger.” The FCC’s broadband plan supports that choice, she and Mitchell both said. The nation is “far better off” if communities are allowed to build their own telecom networks, she said. The FCC has been “open and collaborative with local government,” she said. “They've listened to us and welcomed our perspective.” She appreciated the “fair hearing” and hopes the next administration continues that sense of voluntary dialogue among industry, government and consumer stakeholders, she said. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance released a fact sheet on municipal networks Wednesday, outlining jobs created and other benefits to different networks around the country (http://xrl.us/bnyh3w).
The immediate post-election focus will probably be fiscal, National Regulatory Research Institute Principal Sherry Lichtenberg said. The “policies we have today” will likely continue without “significant changes,” she said. President Barack Obama will likely issue his cybersecurity order during the lame duck session of Congress, she said. The FCC will likely “take a backseat” in the coming months as Obama focuses on the economy, she said. Any change will be “slow” and “I don’t expect gridlock to go away” overall, she said.
Mitchell of the self-reliance institute sees broader ideological shifts, independent of party affiliation, in these elections, he said: “I continue to worry that the country is moving away from the idea of universal access.” Federal government “seems to think the only tool that will work is throwing more money at big companies,” he said.
FirstNet is also of “enormous interest” to local government, Hovis said. Local jurisdictions have “significant assets and infrastructure” that can and should be utilized, she said. “We have great confidence in NTIA.” Major telcos are selectively acting to reduce carrier-of-last-resort obligations “on a state-by-state basis,” Mitchell said. He doesn’t expect that strategy to change, he said. Hovis watched multiple races that may have implications for local communities. Democrat Tammy Baldwin’s election as Wisconsin senator caught her attention due to Baldwin’s support of community media, she said.