Bridging the digital divide — or making sure each home has access to broadband internet — may be within San Antonio's reach after years of work.
The federal government has channeled billions of dollars to states to address this issue and Texas will be making grants later this year.
The Digital Inclusion Alliance of San Antonio is hosting a meeting Thursday at the San Antonio Water System headquarters to discuss its myriad efforts.
Its keynote speaker is longtime consumer advocate Gigi Sohn.
Sohn was nominated to the Federal Communications Commission but failed to be confirmed due to overwhelming opposition by telecom companies.
TPR interviewed her about what San Antonio should do about its digital future, her failed fight to be confirmed to the FCC and why she wouldn't change it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TPR
Why are you in San Antonio?
Gigi Sohn
I'm coming to San Antonio, to basically be a cheerleader for the city to build its own broadband network. So there are 650 communities around the country who have decided that the broadband Internet access that they get from the AT&Ts and Comcasts and Charters of the world are not meeting the community's needs. So they build their own, and they own the infrastructure. And this way, they can determine that everybody gets it, they can determine at what price point particularly poor people get broadband, and they can also make their city smarter. So I'm there basically to, you know, to raise the flag for what I call public broadband or community owned broadband and say that San Antonio should move forward and take matters into its own hands and own its future.
TPR
San Antonio has for a long time, flirted with this idea of its own municipal broadband network. Texas law around it is sort of prohibitive, but federal law around that seems to make it possible. There's always been this kind of gray area that people who don't want to do anything say we exist in, so why now why is this the thing for San Antonio?
"I've praised Republicans, I've criticized Democrats to me, it's not about politics. It's about policy."Gigi Sohn
Gigi Sohn
It's not 'why now' it's like, 'why hasn't it happened already?'
You know, if the pandemic taught us anything, it was that broadband Internet access is not a luxury. It's a necessity.
I've believed that for a decade now. But you know, many people still thought it was a luxury in 2019 and early 2020. But when kids had to sit in front of a Taco Bell in Southern California, so they could use a Wi-Fi in order to do their schoolwork, because the school was closed.
I think the lightbulb went off for most people. And in a lot of cities, they found that particularly in poor communities, people didn't have it. Because largely because it couldn't afford it or in some cases, because the companies just didn't feel like building to their neighborhoods because they weren't going to make a lot of money.
TPR
Do you think that the pandemic has led people to change how people think about luxury vs necessity on broadband?
Gigi Sohn
Absolutely, I believe the pandemic and some of the stories around it, some of the pictures around it again, the kids using Wi-Fi to do their schoolwork and during school hours, not homework, but during school hours. You know, people doing their jobs sitting in a Walmart parking lot. I mean, there were dozens of stories, scores of stories like that. In fact, I did a CBS Sunday Morning peace. They actually built a studio in my backyard.
And I think that was reflected in Congress passing as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law $65 billion worth of money to not only deploy new networks, particularly in rural areas where you know, many do not have any capacity, any network at all, but also for a subsidy to bring people online.
TPR
How important do you think local governments are to the efforts around affordable and universal broadband access?
Gigi Sohn
Local governments are critical when it comes to ensuring that all of their residents are online. So I just talked about a broadband subsidy that was part of the bipartisan infrastructure law was something called the Affordable Connectivity Program. And it was $14.2 billion for a $30-a-month subsidy or $75, if you live on tribal lands, to get low-income households online. Well, that $14.2 billion is no longer; it's been completely spent. There are over 23 million households. So about 50 some-odd-million folks in the US [are] profiting from that subsidy. But that money has run out. And Congress is not seeing fit to extend that program.
The Federal Communications Commission, which does have the power to set its own subsidy has not seen fit to do that. So whose lack does that fall into? It falls into the states and local communities.
And that's why more and more local communities are looking at building their own networks, because again, they can dictate whether low-income families get broadband, at what price if any price, and ensure that everybody gets it, and not just the privileged folks that live in rich neighborhoods.
I think, since the beginning of the year, there have been about 50 new net public networks or municipal networks that are being built across the country.
I mean, one thing that I think is really important is that broadband access is really a social justice issue. People get all mixed up and the technical analysis of it and you know, the technicality and the wires, and then this, and then that. But it's really about whether one can be a full participant in our society, our economy, our health care and education systems.
TPR
About two months ago, the FCC voted to make broadband a public utility again, which was one of your major kind of accomplishments. And under FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Does that mean that net neutrality is back?
Gigi Sohn
Net neutrality is back for now. There are challenges to the courts. Not surprisingly, if Donald Trump is reelected, president, it will be gone again. And this is one of the things that kind of drives me crazy—as happy as I am that the FCC has reinstated broadband as a utility and has reinstated net neutrality.
It can be changed with the new administration. And Congress has definitely been derelict in its duty to classify broadband as a utility to determine what breadth of authority that the FCC should have over broadband. And they've been asked now for almost 25 years, please, can you definitively say that, you know, what power the FCC has over broadband and refuses to do so. So you have this game of ping pong, or under Democrats? It's a utility and Republicans it's not a utility. And that's because Congress hasn't done its job.
TPR
And why is that? Why do you think that is that they have not done their [job]?
Gigi Sohn
I think it's pretty easy. [laughs] The telecoms that don't want the FCC to have and cable companies don't want the FCC to have any oversight over broadband. Make very large contributions. I unfortunately know that from personal experience.
TPR
The personal experience you're referring to is your own nomination for the FCC. Were you surprised at the level of opposition to your nomination?
Gigi Sohn
I was very surprised at the level of opposition. I expected there to be opposition. Look, I'm a lifelong consumer advocate. I went up against the biggest companies in the world. So I made a lot of people angry.
But I also worked with every single one of them, you know, over my career. There was never a time there was never an industry that I didn't join with, at one time or another. They knew me as an honest broker. They also knew I was not a far-left wahoo. But that's the portrait they painted of me, and they spent an awful lot of money.
We'll never be able to quantify exactly how much money they spent to defeat my nomination. But I think to say that it was in the millions would not be an exaggeration.
TPR
You were put up three times, correct?
Gigi Sohn
Three confirmation hearings. Yes. I was nominated three times. I was nominated in October 2021. I was re-nominated in January 2022. And in January 2023. I was nominated three times. I had three confirmation hearings.
But it was not enough. Because unfortunately, corporatist Democrats didn't feel that they much prefer to check from Comcast, or one of the other studios, than confirming the President's choice to be an FTC Commissioner.
TPR
I would hate to leave out the influence of Texas Senator Ted Cruz on the process. I was just Googling around earlier. And I Googled "Gigi Sohn" and Ted Cruz came up very, very high on the list.
When you were being nominated, he continued to paint you as a radical left-wing partisan activist and said you were pro-censorship, wanted to censor conservative speech.
Where do you think his attacks came from? Were these disingenuous? Do you think he was actually concerned?
Gigi Sohn
I think he was being disingenuous, and I'll tell you why.
I met with him for 45 minutes and I'll give him credit because a lot of Republican Senators on the Commerce Committee refused to meet with me at all. He met with me for 45 minutes, we went toe to toe. But after it was over, it was clear that he had a level of respect for me.
And in my first hearing, he actually gave me an opportunity to explain why I wasn't a censor. And I mentioned that I had the support of two of the most conservative cable channels, Newsmax and OAN. And, you know, he actually gave me about three, four minutes to actually explain myself, which was not how we behaved in the second and third hearings.
My understanding is and again, I can't prove it, is that Rupert Murdoch picked up the phone and said, "What the hell are you doing?" Rupert Murdoch went after me in every way possible. He editorialized against me, personally, five times in the Wall Street Journal. There were at least a dozen Fox news segments, The New York Post went after me.
[Murdoch] just used all of his media to go after me. And I think that's what happened
TPR
Despite that, you just gave a college commencement speech last month where you said you wouldn't change anything about that fight?
Gigi Sohn
Absolutely not. I deserved to be confirmed. I didn't do anything wrong beforehand. I didn't do anything wrong during. As I said, in the speech, you know, people were saying, Well, why don't you apologize for some of the things you did? And why don't you step down from the Electronic Frontier Foundation Board, which is a libertarian organization that protects people's digital rights. And I was like, I'm not going to do it. It's not important enough.
And what's interesting is, you know, post confirmation, I've had this platform, I've traveled all over the country, speaking the gospel about of universal broadband, and community broadband, and I may well have a bigger audience now than I would have had I been on the FCC.
And the good news is, if I've been in the government, I really would have to watch my words. And now I really don't have to watch my words. And I don't plan to. I plan to speak the truth, even if it means sometimes criticizing the Democratic party, the FCC or the Democratic administration.
Throughout my entire career I have praised Republicans and I've criticized Democrats. To me, it's not about politics. It's about policy.
