WASHINGTON – Media Access Project (MAP) filed two sets of comments with the Federal Communications Commission today urging the agency to classify wireline and wireless broadband as telecommunications services. This classification will provide sound authority for the Commission to bring affordable broadband to communities across the country and to protect Internet users. In the filings, MAP represented public interest and social justice organizations based in cities and towns around the country.

Parul P. Desai, MAP’s Vice President, said:

“The stakes in this debate have not been overstated. The course the Commission chooses will decide nothing less than the future of Internet access.

“It will impact the Commission’s power to increase broadband deployment, effectuate universal, affordable broadband services, and address barriers to broadband adoption and utilization – all key components of the National Broadband Plan. Further, the agency’s actions today will decide whether or not it can preserve an open and nondiscriminatory Internet that has thus far empowered communities across the country and advanced freedom of expression.”

Matt Wood, MAP’s Associate Director, said:

“Notwithstanding the flurry of congressional letters, opinion pieces, and scholarly analyses pro and con on this topic, the law is clear. The Supreme Court has affirmed that classifying broadband as a telecommunications service is well within the Commission’s discretion.

“Such a classification would provide the most sure and sound legal basis for efficiently achieving the nation’s vital broadband policy goals. It will promote competition, provide opportunities for economic growth and free expression, and protect consumers online.”

In one of the filings, MAP represents the Center for Media Justice, a media and social justice organization, Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, and New America Foundation, a public policy institute based in Washington, D.C.

Read that filing at http://www.mediaaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/PIReclass071510.pdf.

In the other filing, MAP is legal counsel to the following community-based public interest and media justice organizations: Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (San Antonio, Tex.), Main Street Project (Minneapolis, Minn.), Media Alliance (Oakland, Calif.), Media Justice League (San Antonio, Tex.), Media Literacy Project (Albuquerque, New Mex.), Media Mobilizing Project (Philadelphia, Penn.), Peoples Production House (New York, Ny.), Reclaim the Media (Seattle, Wash.), Thousand Kites (Whitesburg, Ky.), and Center for Rural Strategies (Whitesburg, Ky.). These groups are affiliated with the coalition named Media Action Grassroots Network, or “MAG-Net,” representing low-income communities, immigrant communities, and communities-of-color, in both rural and urban neighborhoods.

Read the MAG-Net filing at http://www.mediaaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/MAGNetReclassFINAL071510.pdf.