Why Latinos Should Pay Attention to IP Transition

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

True Story: my father, who passed away late last year at the age of 92, said he remembered watching silent movies. He said he and his buddies giggled nervously thinking there were actors behind the screen. This is the same man who, years later, would call me over to the house telephone (the rotary one attached to the wall) and ask me to dial his brother’s number – “comunícame con tu tio Júlio.”

In my father’s lifetime communications technology has transformed as if from Jules Verne’s imagination; from silent movies to mobile devices we carry in our back pocket. And as I write this we’re on the cusp of even greater transformation.

Another true story: when the United States was first formed, one of the first laws that the very first congress approved was the formation of the postal service, and special rates for newspapers. The postal service was not intended, as such, for the delivery of mail as much as for the delivery of information – an informed citizenry being a pillar of a democratic society and all…

Government regulation of the communications industry – with the excuse of regulating commerce and the scarcity of the channels on the radio and TV dial, among other reasons – has been around as long as the U.S. has been…pretty much since Ben Franklin, et al.

Through the years the two – the advance of communications technologies and government regulations – have gone forward in step (there have been hiccups and fights and nastiness). But the most recent advances in communications technologies have come at such a rapid pace that government, through no fault other than its own nature, has been left swimming upstream in a torrent. Technology advances at an increasingly fast rate, and government is designed to act slowly – we want it this way, we want to make sure that government goes slow so we can keep it in check for the same reason Franklin and Co. set up a postal service to keep the citizens informed.

The problem is that we’re at an impasse. Tech is biting at the bit to move forward and government needs to step up.  The old copper line telephone system was once a novelty to my Dad, but it hardly fits the need of today’s communications. In fact, hardly one third of all communications is done via those old copper voice lines. Most of us use our wireless and mobile phones, internet pipes, chats and hangouts and such. The transition from the old infrastructure to the newer way, across the country from rural to urban areas, is over due, and so is an organized way to get it done.

This is what’s known in communications technology circles as the IP Transition (IP stands for internet protocol, which is technical jargon, but means all the stuff that makes the new technology work), and it’s incredibly important for the Latino community. The way IP Transition is carried out will have an enormous impact among Latinos.

In this regard there’s an idea for an IP roll-out called the All IP – Pilot Program. It calls for a region specific roll out where phone companies would switch off the old lines and test new IP technology. This “pilot” way would allow for wrinkles in the process to be found and ironed out, but most importantly it would give an opportunity to find how the new technology will affect all consumers.

It’s a good marriage of the open and free-wheeling advance of technological discovery and the deliberate nature of the governmental process.

The All IP – Pilot Program is a good idea, but only if Latinos are included, front and center, from the very beginning.  Latinos lag 19% behind whites in in-home computer use. Most of the lag has to do with affordability. So the Pilot Program should include Latinos and affordability in it’s fundamental set-up.

It’s exactly what the revered founding fathers had in mind back in the late 18th century: access to information, educated citizens, vibrant democracy. Nothing’s changed since then, since the days of silent movies and rotary telephones – except the technology. And that’s where we need to catch up, with deliberate equity.