Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison has written a letter urging the Federal Communications Commission to work with Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon to prevent the shutdown of broadband access to 300,000 Americans, including 11,000 individuals in Rep. Ellison’s 5th Congressional District of Minnesota.
“All Americans deserve equal Internet access and are more likely to succeed if they are connected and engaged,” Rep. Ellisonstated in his letter, which was addressed to the FCC’s Chairman Thomas Wheeler.
A preliminary injunction was granted earlier this month, stopping Sprint from shutting down its WiMax network as it planned on Nov. 6, but Sprint has appealed the injunction and is dragging its feet in helping customers effectively migrate to the new network. Thousands of adults and children in the Twin Cities — along with 429 schools, 61 libraries and 1,820 nonprofits across the country — stand to lose access in the shutdown.