Coalition Urges Use of Auction Proceeds to Help Close Digital Divide

Public interest and consumer groups proposed that the FCC allocate revenue from future auctions to endow a Digital Equity Foundation to help close the digital divide. The groups announced the initiative on a webcast Wednesday, the day after FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel urged that some auction proceeds be used to pay for improved 911 (see 2202220057).

The Emergency Connectivity Fund supported schools and libraries, “but that funding is going to run out,” said John Windhausen, Schools Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition executive director. “We need to have an ongoing, more permanent source of funding,” he said. The 70% of people with broadband are “using it for more and more important things,” he said: “The 30% who don’t have access fall further and further and further behind.”

Paying for broadband and 911 “are very compatible goals,” said Amina Fazlullah, Common Sense senior director-equity policy. Both fall under the FCC’s “public interest priorities,” she said. The COVID-19 pandemic made “painfully clear” that “we have many needs in this country,” said Alan Inouye, American Library Association senior director-public policy and government relations. Consumers need better broadband and next-generation 911, he said.

Also in the coalition are the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Center for Rural Strategies, Consumer Reports, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute at New America.

“Everyone needs to be connected to communications for the core essentials of their lives,” said PK President Chris Lewis. Having a sustainable fund “is just smart policymaking,” he said: “When we value something we make sure that it is always there and available and that’s especially important in technology because of how technology changes over time.”

Getting enough auction proceeds to pay for the program could take up to five years, Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America, told us. The FCC will conduct the 2.5 GHz auction this year, but “the relatively modest proceeds expected are already built into the budget baseline,” he said.

The largest potential auction is the lower 3 GHz band, Calabrese said. “The bipartisan infrastructure bill requires an auction, but also allows DOD to decide how many MHz can be sufficiently cleared for auction,” he said. The Congressional Budget Office, as a result of that restriction, scored it as likely to raise only $10 billion, he said. Other pending legislation “could remove that restriction, leading to a much larger auction, generating a much larger revenue estimate,” he said. Congress is also working on “spectrum pipeline” provisions that are likely to accompany an extension of FCC auction authority, as Congress did in 2012, he said.

CTIA supported the Rosenworcel proposal to use auction monies to pay for 911. "Dedicating funds from congressionally mandated licensed spectrum auctions can help speed the rollout of these capabilities, and we look forward to working with the Chairwoman and Congress to make that a reality with a clear pipeline of 5G-friendly spectrum auctions,” a spokesperson emailed Wednesday.