Small Business Must Be a Stakeholder in National Broadband Plan Discussions
3:58 PM June 25, 2010
Today, WIPP and several of its partner organizations addressed its concerns directly to President Obama relative to the implementation of the National Broadband Plan. The Plan is critical for small business growth and America's overall growth and competitiveness. We are tremendously excited about its vision and scope, but have some reservations.
The first concerns the FCC's approach to now consider classifying broadband as a Telecommunications Service under Title II of the 1934 Telecommunications Act. At this point in time, we need to move forward with full deployment of broadband and encourage innovation and private sector investment. A heavy regulatory environment will not be conducive to moving the initiative forward, and certainly the legal and political battles will cause undue and unnecessary delays and frustrations.
A second area of concern is the need for the small business voice in the process at the FCC. We believe the FCC would benefit by including small businesses, especially women-owned small businesses, into its stakeholder discussions, since women-owned firms are the fastest growing sector of the US economy.
We sincerely hope that the President will recognize our concerns. It is so important to move this initiative forward.
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