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).
Oh, I guess I’m just not hearing those same things where I’m at. Are these progressives POC?
I’m in the mid-South. The two leaders were, most everyone else was white. But honestly, it wouldn’t have made a difference. When you’ve got white supremacist groups arguing for socialism (for white people), and progressives arguing for preferential treatment for POC to the extreme that it comes off as punitive to a majority of non-POC folks, sure seems like a centrist position is social protections and support for poor people, regardless of race.