TACIR Continues Study of Broadband

Last month, TACIR (Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations) continued it’s study of broadband at its August 30-31 meeting.  

 

First, the commission heard a presentation from Bill Young of the Tennessee Attorney General’s office. Mr. Young discussed the 6th Circuit Appellate Court ruling that overturned the FCC ruling which attempted to preempt the state’s law that restricts where municipal electric utilities can offer  broadband system. Mr. Young shared that the FCC would not be moving forward with an appeal to the Supreme Court, and therefore it is unlikely the Supreme Court would take up the case.

 

Second, staff from the Department of Economic and Community Development shared the results of their survey of residents and businesses. The results of ECD’s study can be found here. Among many other findings, the survey found 13 percent of Tennesseans, or 834,545 people, do not have access to broadband at the FCC standard of 25 megabytes per second of download speed and 3 megabytes per second of upload speed. A press release with a link to the entire 170-plus page survey can be found here. During discussion of the survey, chairman of TACIR Sen. Mark Norris made a point to share his belief that the efforts of ECD were a survey that the larger and more encompassing TACIR report would use as it puts its final work product together. Additionally, Sen. Norris cautioned against efforts that work to expand broadband access to everyone in the vein of "putting a chicken in every pot" as he put it.

 

Third, the commission looked to how people use the Internet when they are able to get access, and the need to educate people about what can be with Internet access. This issue is often called "digital literacy," which is simply sharing information with folks about how to get online, the value of getting online, and taking advantage of being online. Several presentations discussed this topic, and they included: 

• Michael Ramage, Former Director of Connected Tennessee
• Cliff Lloyd, CIO, Tennessee Department of Education
• Charles A. Sherrill, Tennessee State Librarian and Archivist
• Larry Jones, Telehealth Coordinator for Rural Health Care Program
• Jacob Weiss, Director, High‐Wired Communities and High‐Wired Lifeline
• Keith Durbin, IT Director and CIO, Metropolitan Government of Nashville

If it seems like TACIR has been studying this for a while, you’re not alone. Work on the study, which began in early summer of 2015,  is scheduled to end late 2016 or early 2017, with a draft of the broadband study likely to be presented at TACIR’s next meeting, which is December 5-6. To view all the documents from the TACIR meeting relating to broadband, visit here and scroll to tab 10.