this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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596
US broadband grant rules shut out small ISPs and municipalities, advocates say (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The biggest Internet service providers will dominate a $42.45 billion broadband grant program unless the Biden administration changes a rule requiring grant recipients to obtain a letter of credit from a bank, according to a joint statement from consumer advocacy groups, local government officials, and advocates for small ISPs.

The letter sent today to US government officials argues that "by establishing capital barriers too steep for all but the best-funded ISPs, the LOC [letter-of-credit requirement] shuts out the vast majority of entities the program claims to prioritize: small and community-centered ISPs, minority and women-owned ISPs, nonprofits, and municipalities."

The rule is part of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that's being administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TLDR; if we don't work toward solutions to racial justice before socioeconomic justice, the power and capital likely won't exist to follow through with the former

So, I can't say for sure but what I think you've ran into is something that I heard best explained by a podcast once (I think it was one of Robert Evans). My guess is that what you encountered was organizers trying to take account for the systematic imbalance of power that is inherent within the US. Often times it goes unseen by many of us that can't see it because it doesn't effect us in the same way. We can see those problems of poverty and lack of support but then what about the added struggle of race, gender, disability? Those things added on top create deeper and different issues that we can't account for, because we can't know them. It's the argument that to rid society of these myriad issues we must take the privilege we have and can't see and use it to back POC to fight the problems that they see.

I think I know where you're coming from now, and though I've been in spaces where that happened, I've never seen issue in it because I believe in the premise. I've known multiple persons who did run into situations and feel like their views or voice were being marginalized from it though. I wasn't there for their experience but I mostly think it was a misunderstanding on their part though and they couldn't move past their ideas being of less importance/priority. I think this can play out in ways that can be counterproductive from time to time, but also that set backs that come from it are eventually learned from and worthwhile.

It's hard knowing how you want to organize and feeling like the roadmap is right in front if we could just come together and focus a part of the problem. There's a risk that we still leave others behind though if we don't address their issues before our own. People and movements lose interest once their needs and goals are met and if we want to pull off the big move forward we have to do it all together.

Am I closer to talking about what you were now?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The mental convolutions required to turn a rural food desert issue into a racial justice issue are extreme—it is this kind of thing that absolutely alienates good people who aren’t willing to say there are five lights when there are clearly only four. Its fucking purity politics and it’s vastly more harmful than helpful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

well regardless, sorry that happened to you