On October 30th, MMTC President and CEO Maurita Coley Flippin spoke on inclusion, innovation, smart cities, and MMTC’s apprenticeship and workforce development initiatives at Charter Communications, Inc.’s “Partnering with Communities Today to Build the Smart Cities of Tomorrow” event. Noting the cable industry partnership with local government franchising authorities for over 40 years, Coley Flippin supported public-private partnerships between local governments and their technology partners, emphasizing inclusion first and the use of apprenticeships to ensure that diverse communities have access to career and business opportunities in smart cities innovation. [click to continue…]
On October 24th, the Federal Communications Commission voted on two significant items regarding the future of spectrum:
- The FCC voted on rules regarding the Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum band, with the goal of promoting additional investment and encouraging broader deployment in the band.
- The FCC proposed to make up to 1200 megahertz of spectrum available for use by unlicensed devices, providing low-cost wireless connectivity in products used by American consumers.
On October 25th, MMTC hosted its Digital Equity Roundtable meeting, “Spectrum, 5G, and Our Communities: Why Does It Matter?” in an effort to understand the impact of these actions on low-income, rural, and communities of color. Danielle Pineres, Associate General Counsel at NCTA, provided a primer on the 3.5 MHz spectrum band, the C-Band, and the FCC’s spectrum initiatives, followed by a roundtable discussion led by MMTC President and CEO Maurita Coley Flippin and MMTC Vice President of Telecom and Spectrum Policy Dr. Rikin Thakker. The Roundtable addressed:
- How the FCC’s actions will affect broadband deployment and investment for low-income, rural, and communities of color?
- Will the FCC’s actions spur opportunities for small and diverse business investment and success?
The Southern Journal of Policy and Justice recently published a law review article by MMTC President Emeritus and Senior Advisor David Honig, addressing the FCC’s 46-year history of deliberate exclusion of diverse voices and ownership of the nation’s airwaves “on a grand scale” from 1932 to 1978, and Honig’s recommendations on steps the Commission should take to (1) promote diversity of voices, viewpoints, and information; (2) promote competition; (3) remedy the effects of past discrimination; and (4) prevent and proscribe discrimination.
The article begins by emphasizing the vital role broadcast communications have played and continued to play in the 20th and 21st century, outlines in detail the FCC’s history and long-lasting impacts of deliberate exclusion, and concludes with Honig’s recommendations. [click to continue…]
The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on the Mozilla Corporation v. Federal Communications Commission open internet case. The brief assesses “[w]hether the Commission appropriately considered the needs of our nation’s most vulnerable, hard-to-reach populations, including communities of color, when it decided to return the classification of broadband internet access services to the light-touch regulation that resulted in the expansion of broadband deployment and access during the last two decades.”
Since the 2010 establishment of the National Broadband Plan, MMTC has supported efforts to close the digital divide and bring broadband access to more people of color and vulnerable populations. MMTC thus encourages policymakers to focus on policies that facilitate the goal of ensuring affordable access to broadband for all, not just a fortunate few. [click to continue…]
National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th each year. This year, MMTC paid tribute to former FCC Commissioners Henry M. Rivera, Patricia Diaz Dennis, and Gloria Tristani; and the contributions of the Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP), League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), MANA, A National Latina Organization, and National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce to the media, telecom, and tech industries.
Hon. Rivera became the first Hispanic FCC Commissioner after being appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. During his tenure at the FCC (1981-1985), Rivera served as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Alternative Financing for Minority Opportunities in Telecommunications (1982), the Supervisory Commissioner of the Telecommunications Industry Advisory Group to Revise Uniform System of Accounts (1982), and a member of the Federal-State Joint Board on Separations (1983-1985). In 1986, he became the founding chair of MMTC’s Board of Directors and later served the organization for 25 years. In addition, he served as the President of the Federal Communications Bar Association and co-chaired President Barack Obama’s FCC Science Transition team. Currently, he practices telecom, media, and tech law as a partner at Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C.
Read MMTC’s Broadband and Social Justice Blog post, “MMTC Chair Henry Rivera Celebrates 25 Years of Service” (December 2011). Go here to learn more about his accomplishments.
Hon. Dennis holds the distinction of being the first Hispanic woman to serve as an FCC Commissioner from 1986 to 1989. Prior to her FCC appointment by President Reagan, she served as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (1983). She was appointed by President George H. Bush as an assistant secretary of state for humanitarian affairs (1992). After she completed her government service, she worked as special counsel to Sullivan & Cromwell for communications matters and a partner and the head of the communications section at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. In 1995, she joined AT&T (formerly SBC Communications) and was responsible for AT&T Corporate Litigation, Procurement, Corporate Real Estate, Environmental, Corporate Compliance, IT, Trademark and Copyright legal matters. She retired from AT&T as Senior Vice President & Assistant General Counsel in 2008. [click to continue…]
This month, Cablefax named MMTC President and CEO Maurita Coley Flippin as one of the 2018 Most Influential Minorities. Cablefax’s award celebrates the contributions of minorities in technical, legal, financial, creative, and other fields who help shape the media and broadband industry.
Coley previously was named one of Cablefax’s Top Lawyers in 2017 and 2018. Focusing on advocating for the multicultural media in telecom issues before the FCC and other agencies as MMTC president and CEO, Coley draws on her 30-year background in the business.
Her experience includes serving on BET Holdings’ (now Viacom) executive management team as well as other businesses serving African American consumers. “Working for BET in the 1990s during the years when it was an African-American owned and controlled public company was my ‘Camelot’ experience, but there’s still time!” she says of her proudest career accomplishment. [click to continue…]
MMTC relaunched its Digital Equity Roundtable series with a discussion and workshop on consumer online privacy with guest speaker Travis Hall, Telecommunications Policy Specialist at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), held at Davis Wright Tremaine on September 19th. Since this workshop, NTIA has released a Request for Comment on approaches to consumer privacy.
The way government regulates the internet has significant potential impacts on communities of color, as well as their access, adoption, and informed use. As MMTC has pointed out, cost, digital literacy, and security concerns are still the driving factors in whether consumers adopt broadband at all, as well as the type of broadband service consumers select to use. If consumers perceive certain services to be unsafe because they could put their personal information at risk, they could avoid services that would improve their quality of life, including banking, telehealth, education, searching and applying for jobs, and civic engagement.
MMTC and other leading civil rights organizations have been vocal on this subject, advocating for a robust and uniform set of privacy protections for users no matter where they navigate online. In light of recent government action around this important issue, MMTC focused its recent Digital Equity Roundtable discussion on consumer online privacy. [click to continue…]
WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 17, 2018): In the best public service tradition of broadcasting, three radio station groups have voluntarily banded together to provide life-saving information to Spanish-speaking residents of two coastal South Carolina communities threatened by Hurricane Florence. The companies are:
- Cumulus Media, which serves Myrtle Beach
- Dick Broadcasting, which serves Hilton Head
- Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), which is voicing and transmitting Spanish-language alerts and information for Cumulus Media’s and Dick Broadcasting’s South Carolina stations.
The three broadcast companies came together at the request of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The South Carolina Broadcasters Association and the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau each assisted in identifying the participating broadcasters.Through this initiative, the 22,000 Hispanic residents of the Myrtle Beach radio market and 21,000 Hispanic residents of the Hilton Head radio market are receiving life-saving information about health care issues, shelters, how to find missing persons, health care issues, and avoiding injury. [click to continue…]
The University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Public Affairs recently published the “FCC Reorganization: How Replacing Silos with Functional Organization Would Advance Civil Rights” article by David Honig, MMTC President Emeritus and Senior Advisor. The article demonstrates how a function–based reorganization of the FCC would profoundly enhance the agency’s civil rights regulatory effectiveness.
In the article, Honig recommends that the FCC abandon silos and match its structure to the technologies it regulates. The FCC could accomplish this by creating three new bureaus—Policy and Economics, Licensing and Grantmaking, and Engineering—and modestly restructuring its Enforcement Bureau. It could then decommission the Media, Wireline and Wireless bureaus.
In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, MMTC calls upon the Federal Communications Commission to close the digital divide in all its manifestations and act now to ensure equal opportunity in employment and ownership, and in access to essential communications for the most dispossessed.
On this day, April 4, 1968, Dr. King’s assassination shook the world.
Fifty years later, we remember Dr. King for his fearless leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, his campaign for economic justice, his opposition to war, and his unwavering and fearless support for decent pay and working conditions for all Americans.
But we ought to remember Dr. King every day, because the wisdom that he shared then is just as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.
Similar to the mantras of today’s young social justice leaders urging us to “stay woke,” in his 1968 address dedicated to “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution,” Dr. King said:
“…one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution.”
In 1963, long before the digital age, Dr. King fully recognized – and utilized – the power of broadcasting and its role in the civil rights movement. Dr. King’s strategic use of media is detailed in the recent NBC News documentary: Hope and Fury: MLK, the Movement, and the Media. But despite his media savvy, MMTC’s co-founder and President Emeritus David Honig, who knew Dr. King personally and who led one of the Southern Christian Leadership Council’s (SCLC) youth chapters over 50 years ago, recalls that technology did not impress Dr. King in the least. Dr. King wrote that technology “brought us neither peace of mind nor serenity of spirit,” and that powerful forces like electricity are
“amoral and can be used for either good or evil.…We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”
Racial Inequality Has Marked the Advent of New Technologies
Fast forward to the present, to the digital age in which a tech industry – led largely by white males – has been allowed to expand – largely without accountability and without regulations that govern its business or employment practices, or even its algorithms, despite the visible existence of a diverse global population. This homogeneity and digitally codified bias is having sweeping negative impacts on communities of color and other marginalized communities across the nation, as examined by MMTC in our Big Data and Algorithm Discrimination White Paper that will be released later this month. [click to continue…]
