January 26, 2012

The Latino mobile adoption story is well told. We know Latinos lead in using mobile, including social networking applications via their handheld devices. This week, a new study by noted economists Rob Shapiro and Kevin Hassettdocuments some interesting developments about job creation in the United States that connect to this overarching narrative.

Shapiro and Hassett show how the money spent by U.S. wireless companies to buy spectrum and build faster and bigger wireless broadband networks has created more than 1.5 million new jobs across the U.S. economy.  The study, released last week by NDN, a progressive think tank, documents the direct link between investing in wireless broadband networks and job creation.  Many economists have discussed the theoretical possibility of investments creating jobs (in studies from Deloitte, Ovum / CTIA, and the Phoenix Center), but this study is the first time anyone has actually looked backwards and proved a direct connection between investment in mobile build-out and jobs.

Study after study shows that Hispanics are key drivers of the demand for more and better wireless broadband. This community is a key part of the driver of private investment which has created the jobs documented in the new study.

So, a few takeaways here.  The new study proves that jobs can be created regardless of a slumping economy.  The study also proves that American ingenuity and innovation can have tangible benefits beyond cool apps and faster networks.  Of most relevance to Hispanic communities is the fact that we have played a leadership role in driving companies to invest – which has driven the job creation Shapiro and Hasset capture.

Jason A. Llorenz, Esq. is Executive Director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP). Twitter: @hispanicttp

In the last two weeks, President Obama launched two separate digital strategies showcasing the prominence that broadband and digital tools have taken in politics and security.  The first was the President’s much-hyped Twitter town hall that allowed him to engage directly with the web-surfing public.  The second aimed at taking the fight to Al-Qaeda in cyberspace.

The Twitter Town Hall was seen by some as an opportunity for Obama to bypass the mainstream media and get his message directly to young, plugged-in voters he’ll need to win re-election in 2012. The President often departed from Twitter’s 140-character limit, giving lengthy answers to the tweeted questions read by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey. Obama even joked: “I know, Twitter.  I’m supposed to be short.”

Anyone with an Internet connection and a Twitter account had the first opportunity to ask the president their most challenging questions – within the 140-character limit of course.  Over 70,000 tweets were submitted to the town hall and the majority of the dialogue centered on jobs and the economy.  Representative Charles Rangel hosted his own Virtual Town Hall with  Politic365 this week as well.

Broadband and digital networks are also at the center of the White House’s geopolitical security strategies. Nearly ten years after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the White House is reinforcing the importance of the Internet to the fight against Al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks. In the hands of terrorists, the Internet and social media have become instruments of recruitment, finance and communication in support of terrorism. The National Counterterrorism Strategy includes efforts “that go beyond traditional intelligence, military, and law enforcement functions … we are depriving al-Qaida of its enabling means, including the illicit financing, logistical support, and the online communications that sustain its network,” said White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan in announcing the plan.  The plan involves disrupting the terrorist group’s ability to promote violence online.

“Mass media and the Internet in particular have emerged as enablers for terrorist planning, facilitation, and communication, and we will continue to counter terrorists’ ability to exploit them,” states the strategy document.  While not clear on tactical details, it is clear that social media will play a key role in the strategy to undermine Al-Qaeda’s world view and not allow their message of hate to spread unchecked.

Jason Llorenz, Esq. is Executive Director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP).

Last week, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski provided the keynote to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual convention in Las Vegas.  His message was clear: the growing demand for mobile broadband is not going away and voluntary incentive options is key to solving the looming spectrum crisis.

Chairman Genachowski faced an apprehensive crowd of television broadcasters, some of whom have disputed the need for spectrum reallocation by arguing that there is no spectrum crunch or that realignment will be too disruptive for broadcasting and endanger their business.  His remarks were intended to ease their anxiety while reassuring them that auctions were coming.

“I’m confident that, working together, we can resolve relocation issues,” remarked Genachowski, speaking of minimizing disruption to broadcasters and consumers once auctions have taken place and a change in frequency is necessitated.  “I’m committed to working with [broadcasters] on this, as well as being a resource to Congress.”

In his statements, Genachowski made it apparent that quibbling over disproven arguments would lead to delays and that would hurt American competitiveness in the mobile broadband space as well as prove frustrating for consumers who are spectrum-hungry.  By moving forward with voluntary incentive auctions, he maintained that spectrum can go where it is most needed and market-driven forces would lead to investment and innovation.

Genachowski went on to say that incentive auctions would “raise billions of dollars for the Treasury – with serious projections of near $30 billion – that can be put toward deficit reduction and other important uses, like public safety, R&D and broadband connectivity in rural areas.”

Mobile broadband, propelled by spectrum reallocation, is key to all sectors of the economy as well as providing a valuable resource for education and healthcare.   Not only has the FCC called for incentive auctions but leading economists and a broad range of business leaders from all industries have called on Congress to give the FCC the authority it needs to hold these auctions.  All while protecting integrity of the broadcast business model.

For Latinos – who have adopted mobile broadband in droves – the cost of a prolonged spectrum crunch due to inaction is equally if not more severe than for the rest of the country.

To put it bluntly, the FCC Chairman simply stated: “If we wait until there’s a crisis to reallocate spectrum, we’ll have waited too long.”

This week, The Federal Communications Commission granted broadcasters a seven-day extension on the spectrum reassignment docket, No. 10-23.

Jason A. Llorenz, Esq. is Executive Director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership, a coalition of more that twenty national Hispanic serving organizations seeking to increase awareness of technology and telecommunications policy on the US Hispanic community.

Enrique Cortez is Founder and President, Enitial Advanced Communications.

April 8, 2011

On April 6th, the White House held an event focused on the need for Congress to grant the FCC authority to proceed quickly with voluntary incentive auctions of unused or inefficiently used spectrum.  FCC chairman Julius Genachowski called for quick action, noting that delays will mean slowed innovation and higher costs for Americans.

“There’s no questioning the incredible opportunity that mobile broadband presents — opportunity to spur economic growth, create jobs, enhance our global competitiveness, and improve our quality of life,” he said.

Many have called for spectrum to be freed up from inefficient broadcast usage — a holdover from spectrum allocations that occurred before the explosion of wireless Internet. By some estimations, moving spectrum to wireless purposes may offer a 10-fold  increase in value and serve many more than current use.  The added benefit will be the ability to raise nearly $28 billion from the air wave auction to reduce the deficit as well as fund wireless broadband, rural expansion and an emergency public safety network.

Requiring Congressional approval, the plan would be for a TV station to voluntarily agree to have some or all of its frequencies auctioned to mobile carriers in exchange for a cut of the proceeds.  The FCC believes it can get about 120MHz – from about 300MHz of spectrum under total broadcasting licenses – of spectrum from TV broadcasters.

At the Old Executive Office Building event, over 100 economists signed onto a letter in support of auctions as the most efficient means of freeing up spectrum for wireless broadband.  Wireless high-speed Internet expansion provides America with an economic opportunity to create jobs and continue to compete globally.

However, not everyone agrees. Broadcasters have expressed apprehension.  Some have argued that the AT&T/T-Mobile deal reduces the overall market demand for spectrum in an environment where recent broadband allocations to wireless have yet to be rolled out.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to argue with projections of the growing need for wireless broadband.  America’s growing reliance on mobile technology and spectrum-hungry devices such as smart phones and tablets, and the continuing trend of lower use of spectrum for broadcast, adds up to an eventual spectrum crunch and swaths of underutilized spectrum if nothing is done to address the issue.

For Latinos, a group that has rapidly adopting mobile technology, the FCC’s spectrum plan is key to ensuring ongoing access to increasingly high-quality service and competitive prices. Wireless broadband is considered an on-ramp to digital literacy and broadband adoption for Latinos, who rely on wireless broadband for more functions that other American communities because of accessibility, cost, and several other factors..

As the heat of summer, 2005 was sinking deeper over the Mississippi Delta, the after effects of Hurricane Katrina gave the world a clear and tragic understanding of the need for dependable and accessible communication.  Among the many lessons Katrina taught us was that the lack of mobile communication could be an overwhelming barrier to emergency personnel in providing timely responses to life-threatening emergencies and crises.

Nearly six years later, social media has filled the gap in an extraordinary fashion. During the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the Internet helped family members find lost relatives. Stories emerging from global  political crisis and natural disasters amaze us with the power that Facebook, Twitter and social media sites, empowered by mobile broadband, offer in times of emergency.

The “Technology Plays Hero” headlines have come from all over the globe: In addition to the current crisis in Japan , Chile, Haiti, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and others have had been in the headlines for natural disasters and turmoil. Social media, driven by the ubiquity of broadband has changed the way the world talks to each other during crises.

But the technology that empowers is also threatened in many places. As the world recently witnessed, Egypt showed us (again) how fragile digital accessibility can be.  Before President Hosni Mubarak resigned, his government’s response to violent political protests was to abruptly shut down the Internet in an effort to stop activists from using mobile phones and cyber technology to organize — thereby preventing the public from communicating with the outside world.  Facebook, Twitter, cell phone text messages and Blackberry Messenger services were all interrupted.

Civil unrest in Tunisia earlier this year was met with limited censorship of certain sites, and similar unrest in Iran in 2009 resulted in substantial throttling of Internet traffic. In each of these instances, Twitter and other online communications platforms served as the most trustworthy source of on-the-ground information from and between citizens and journalists alike. While Bloggers, Internet activists, and Facebook users may have helped push a regime out of power, Egypt’s response was a great deal more heavy-handed — the sort of censorship that flies in the face of today’s open, and uncensored Internet in the US.

The power of the Internet and mobile broadband is clear to those leaders in Egypt – as well as Tunisia and Iran before them – who feared the free flow of information during times of civic unrest.

In this digital age, these incidents underscore the importance of broadband and digital literacy for all communities here in the U.S. – where the Internet now touches every aspect of American life. And they stand as illustrations of the power to be wielded by communities who fully engage with technology.

Jason Llorenz, Esq. is Executive Director, The Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP).

Enrique Cortez is President and Founder, Enital Advanced Communications.

The DOJ and the FCC will scrutinize the deal. AT&T’s record of corporate citizenship, industry-leading supplier diversity and union workforce will undoubtedly benefit the company in seeking approval. The deal helps to alleviate the spectrum crunch that threatens the mobile services of AT&T, T-Mobile and the entire wireless industry.

Latino community interests are especially high in this deal.  Latinos have adopted wireless in greater numbers than the rest of America, and they also rely on those mobile devices to do more things. 51% of Hispanics and 46% of Blacks use their phones to access the Internet, compared with 33% of whites, according to a July 2010 Pew poll. 47% percent of Latinos and 41% of blacks use their phones for e-mail, compared with 30% of whites. The figures for using social media like Facebook via phone were 36% for Latinos, 33% for blacks and 19% for whites. And so if the deal delivers more widely available, higher-quality mobile services and continues to drive down prices through competition, this will be good for Latinos.

How does this translate to the issues facing Latinos, technology and access to broadband?

For the 112th Congress, key aspects of the Latino policy agenda will be front and center in securing America’s competitiveness in the 21st century.

Broadband adoption, innovation policy and implementation of the national broadband plan to eradicate the digital divide in order to secure long-term American competitiveness are among the key components of the Latino agenda in this area.

Underscoring this, a recent article in Forbes reports on the racial gap in residential broadband usage. The article, highlighting a new report by the US Census – prepared by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Economics and Statistics Administration, provides some of the deepest analysis yet of broadband usage trends in the United States – finding that non-Hispanic white Americans and Asian-Americans are still more likely to go online using a high-speed connection than African-Americans and Hispanics.

In fact, Hispanics remain the least likely to adopt broadband at home – with a 20- point gap in home adoption in comparison to non-Hispanic whites.

Once again, this data demonstrates that the digital divide remains a real barrier to America’s economic competitiveness. There is much work to do in order to correct this and bring all Americans into the Digital economy.

Here is a startling statistic: The new report found that 35 percent of Hispanics who don’t have broadband at home and don’t use it outside of their home either, say they don’t subscribe because they don’t need it, versus 29 percent of this group who say it’s too expensive. With the boundless possibilities that broadband has to offer, it is discouraging to hear that more than one quarter of a group who are unconnected still believe they don’t need to be.

Access is the first step to bringing all Americans – especially low-income Latinos – into the digital age. But the key is adoption – and digital literacy training will play a critical role in increasing adoption. Those currently unconnected need to understand the benefits that broadband access can offer and they must have the technical skills to transact online.

The HTTP Coalition has advocated strongly in support of the efforts of coalition members such as LULAC and ASPIRA, who have created community technology centers throughout the country. These centers have made a considerable difference in these communities; however, it is clear that there is still a long way to go. Federal funds dedicated to digital literacy projects will help – for example, the stimulus program includes $250 million for projects to teach digital literacy skills and encourage broadband adoption, plus another $200 million for public computer centers. But private sector partnerships and investment is necessary for success. Together, these efforts will result in a digitally literate community, with more, lower-cost options to benefit from the benefits of the Internet.

HTTP welcomes the new members of Congress and leadership as 2011 begins renewed advocacy for Latino competitiveness in the digital economy.

–Jason Llorenz, HTTP Executive Director

Jason A. Llorenz

Position: Executive director of the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership, a nonprofit coalition of national Hispanic organizations based in the District working to increase awareness of the impact of technology and telecommunications policy on the U.S. Hispanic community.

Raised in a tough neighborhood in New York City, Jason Llorenz was inspired to begin a career by a trip to Washington during which he met other young leaders from around the country. He decided to go to law school and practice law, which he did for a short time. But he later pursued his passion for public policy in the Hispanic community, which eventually led to his position at the HTTP.

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