(1888PressRelease)
October 07, 2006 - The plight of municipalities trying to offer broadband to their business districts illustrates how unlike the states or Washington local officials are in tune with the idea that freely available broadband access has become a necessary service to economic and community wellbeing. There was a general recognition 80 years ago that areas without electricity were at a competitive disadvantage. Their contention is that the same is now true of broadband. Wimaxcoop, www.wimaxcoop.com, has drafted a preliminary Bill of Rights for broadband consumers that affirms some obvious truths about the vital nature of network availability in 2005. They are asking that anyone concerned with these issues please make their opinion heard at www.wimaxcoop.com.
Broadband Consumer Bill of Rights
1. The right to have access to reliable, affordable and fast information delivery. The availability of reliable, affordable and fast information is now a necessity for quality of life as well as economic opportunity . Consumers have a right to expect reliable, affordable, and speedy information.
2. Consumers have a right to expect uniform standards of broadband access across the country as they travel or move. In an era of competition, consumers should expect to have many choices.
3. The right to join together to establish and operate consumer-owned broadband utilities to provide service and guard against the creation of regional monopolies and duopolies. Current consumer protection depends on government regulation from the FCC. However as well meaning and thoughtful the regulation may be it cannot protect the consumer’s rights as effectively as vigorous and aggressive competition, Wherever there exists a broadband landscape inhabited by two or less providers there will little competition. l
4. The right of consumer-owned systems to be treated fairly and recognized as a unique form of business. Broadband cooperatives (co-ops) are independently owned business enterprises incorporated under the laws of the state in which they operate. They are owned and controlled by the consumers they serve. The pay local taxes. The co-op difference resides in consumer ownership and control. Thus, for co-ops to be treated fairly by government regulation, they must be recognized as a unique form of business, different from investor-owned or even community-owned systems.
5. The right to elect representatives to manage their consumer-owned form of business to best meet their needs. Broadband cooperative consumers (members) participate in the operation of the co-op by electing a board of directors from among its co-op consumers to establish the co-op’s basic policies, goals and strategies, as well as to determine the rates and types of service(s) they wish to receive. In a competitive environment, consumer-owned and controlled cooperatives will be a more important discipline in the marketplace and a more important force for innovation as long as local ownership, local control and local autonomy are not abridged through unnecessary government regulation
6. The individual has a right to privacy. That right should assure that information about consumers will not be released without their prior express consent. Broadband cooperatives must affirm the individuals right to privacy. Recently, however, discussions on homeland security policy have included the idea that network systems should be required to collect and divulge extraordinary consumer specific information. Consumers should have the right to determine how information collected about them is used. Consumer-owned cooperatives should not be required to collect or to divulge consumer specific information. Nowhere is the right to privacy more critical than network services and connectivity. In the very near future all communication — phone, video, email, library usage, bill payments — will be funneled through one network conduit. The use of multiple communication methods (e.g. mail, POTS phone, broadband, dialup) has been a practical and procedural counterweight to unbridled invasion of privacy by legal and illegal means. Consumer owned networks should strive to keep in place a certain level of difficulty for those who would abridge an individual’s rights to privacy no matter how well intended the ends.
7. The right to determine the scope of broadband network services to be furnished . In a competitive environment, consumer-owned cooperatives, with their local ownership, local control and local autonomy provide a fast, efficient and flexible way for consumers to address their needs.
8. The right to use consumer-owned broadband ISPs to provide additional services that meet the needs of their consumers and communities. All broadband consumers must have the right to join together to establish and operate a consumer-owned network, if they so choose. In addition, consumers must retain the right to use their cooperative as a means to meet their needs and expectations over time.
9. The right to work in cooperation with other consumer-owned broadband providers with common goals. Broadband cooperatives should be able to work together to provide a countervailing balance of power in the marketplace to the huge investor-owned broadband utilities that are likely to result from deregulation. Broadband cooperatives should be able to work together to enjoy economies of scale in the open bandwidth market. Consumer-owned, cooperatives should be able to work together to provide a "yardstick" by which all consumers can measure the performance of the market and market participants.
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