• The Facts About Media Inequality in the Bay Area

    Chancellar Williams
    January 8, 2014
    #Oakland Voices: A Town Hall on Our Right to Communicate is just a few hours away. Tonight Oakland residents will get to speak directly to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler during the first community event of his tenure.

  • A Change Has Finally Come

    Chancellar Williams
    August 9, 2013
    Amazing news: The Federal Communications Commission is ending the out-of-control pricing on prison phone calls. For years, the high cost of these calls made it difficult — sometimes impossible — for families to stay in touch.

  • Film Highlights Predatory Prison Phone Rates

    Chancellar Williams
    October 12, 2012
    This Friday, the film Middle of Nowhere will open in several cities around the country. The film explores a woman’s struggle to stay in touch with her incarcerated husband. This is a challenge facing many families, and a big part of it is due to the high cost of prison phone calls — as much as $17 for a 15-minute call.

  • Justice Delayed

    Chancellar Williams
    September 25, 2012

    It’s been almost a decade since Martha Wright filed the lawsuit that led to a petition asking the Federal Communications Commission to address the high cost of prison phone calls — which can climb as high as $17 for a 15-minute call. This was a personal issue for Ms. Wright, who was struggling to stay in touch with a grandson who was incarcerated out of state. She couldn’t easily visit her grandson, who was transferred to multiple prisons over the course of his sentence, and because she’s blind she couldn’t communicate with him via mail.

  • AT&T’s FaceTime Face Plant

    Chancellar Williams
    August 24, 2012

    For the last couple of days I’ve been reveling in the comments section of AT&T’s Public Policy Blog.

  • Black Voices for Internet Freedom Launches

    Chancellar Williams
    September 30, 2011

    Last Friday marked the launch of Black Voices for Internet Freedom, a new coalition of local, regional and national organizations, leaders and their allies joining together to keep the Internet open and free from discrimination.

  • I Can't Afford the AT&T-T-Mobile Merger

    Chancellar Williams
    May 18, 2011

    When I heard about AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, I got nervous. I fear the outcomes of greater concentration in the wireless market for all consumers, but I’m also a former AT&T customer who wrested myself away to T-Mobile just over a year ago. So this merger gets personal.

  • Net Neutrality Guarantees Our Digital Civil Rights

    Chancellar Williams
    November 24, 2009

    When I attended the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Annual Symposium “First Class Digital Citizenship: A Civil and Human Right,” I was pleased to hear Rev.