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October 15, 2005
Requiem for C. Delores Tucker: Civil Rights Unplugged
In one of her last commentaries before her death at age 78 this week, civil rights activist C. Delores Tucker authored an essay about broadband "red-lining" - the practice of telecom companies purposely avoiding the deployment of high-speed Internet services in low-income, marginalized communities. She calls to task SBC and Verizon for their redlining practices, arguing that this intentional widening of the digital divide must be treated as civil rights issue. Here's a sample of what she wrote. -andy
Picture for a minute a major financial institution petitioning Congress for special rules to allow it to provide loans only in certain communities throughout the country. "The cities are off limits!" says this fictional creditor, "and the moderate, middle-income communities . . . forget about it! They're not high-end enough."Were such a corporate actor to step into the political arena, civil rights and political leaders would be quick with their denunciations, attacking the proposal as the kind of odious bigotry seen in a bygone era. Yet this is exactly what the Bell telecommunications monopolies -- Verizon and SBC -- are proposing to Congress and to legislators in California, New Jersey and other places around the country. They are insisting that lawmakers bless their proposal to roll out new digital television and advanced broadband services only to the more affluent....
...The telephone companies' proposal is made precisely for the purpose of allowing them to invest less, and in fewer communities -- rather than more, as the current rules require. And as for their perennial promises of more investment in exchange for legislative favors: Legislators around the country have derided SBC and Verizon for never fulfilling such pledges.
Don't get me wrong. I support Verizon and SBC's entrance into the video services market, and I believe that consumers will benefit from it. But these potential benefits should not transform our elected officials into marionettes for two monopolies that want to trample our civil rights traditions.
Posted by acarvin at October 15, 2005 9:29 AM
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