Community Must Ensure that Comcast Empire Takes our Needs into Account

By: Jeff Chester
Philadelphia Inquirer
November 2002

Some local officials publicly rejoiced this week as the Philadelphia area became the nation's new cable television capital.

The Comcast takeover of AT&T, now blessed by the federal government, is seen as bringing additional economic opportunity and political clout to the region. But it's unlikely that either Philadelphia or the country will genuinely benefit - unless the public demands greater control over Comcast's cable lines and speaks out on how the high-speed Internet and other new digital TV services should serve the public interest.

Although cable is still seen primarily as an entertainment service, leaders like Brian Roberts and his partner Bill Gates understand that it has rapidly evolved into an electronic network that will provide most Americans with access to the information age. So local communities must begin to ask themselves - and Comcast - some tough questions:

Will our schools and libraries receive sufficient connections to the Internet to help educate our children? Will Comcast lines provide additional opportunities for all of the area's commercial enterprises, especially small businesses? How is Comcast planning to share its broadband empire with nonprofit civic and cultural groups? How will Comcast ensure that the benefits of the Internet serve low-income households? How much will schools, start-up businesses, and community groups have to pay to gain access? Will groups traditionally marginalized in the media business - including women and persons of color - get a chance at owning some of the digital pie?

These and other questions must be asked now. The Philadelphia area (and the nation) must begin taking its digital destiny into its own hands. With the long-awaited convergence of television and digital technologies, tremendous changes are under way in the communications landscape.

Neighborhoods and towns that make up part of what Comcast calls its Northeast "supercluster" must seize the initiative. If decisions are left to Comcast and other commercial concerns alone, it is certain that the vast majority of the public won't really benefit. Media giants do a wonderful job at building a generation of passive consumers - but not informed and active citizens.

It's time for the public to develop a blueprint for how the new broadband medium should evolve. Educators, economic development specialists, nonprofit leaders, and concerned parents should launch a digital needs assessment. Once community priorities have been identified - not simply for tomorrow but several years into the future - the hard questions should begin.

It's not just cable that is in the midst of major changes that will affect every resident. As a result of a successful lobbying effort in 1996, each TV station serving the Philadelphia market has been awarded by the government a new slice of the public airwaves for free. With this added capacity, local broadcasters could create new services for children's and educational programming, improved public affairs reporting, and more local cultural content. Opportunities for employment should also be available.

But while these stations plan to create what is formally called "digital multi-casting," the public hasn't been informed - let alone asked - about how these new services can meet local needs.

Seizing our rightful digital destiny won't be easy. One of the reasons groups such as mine opposed the Comcast marriage with AT&T was Comcast's lamentable track record in Washington. Comcast has long resisted any public policy that would provide communities a measure of control over their digital bandwidth. Unfortunately, Comcast and its allies have already won many of these battles at the Federal Communications Commission. We are still fighting them in the courts.

We cannot afford to wait until (and if) the Supreme Court decides that the public interest lies in having a digital medium that places democracy over share price. As Comcast finalizes its business plans for its new empire, communities must make plans of their own, on behalf of the "public interest, convenience, and necessity" that have been the bedrock of telecommunications policy in our nation since 1934.