New Millennium Research Council

Need research and experts to back a particular proposal? The Bells call Issue Dynamics, who created and runs the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC)

Behind the Numbers: Policy groups wage silent war, BroadbandReports, 9/18/03

"The NMRC is a, a consumer and public affairs consulting firm that specializes in developing win-win solutions to complex policy issues. Influencing the Debate The NMRC influences the policy debate by creating a variety of research products. These include "quick response" pieces in reaction to current news as well as longer-term research."

How the Game is Played: How to Run a Skunk Works Campaign 101

Don't take it from us: Here's what IDI says about how the campaign works and what the results are.

"Issue Dynamics worked with the New Millennium Research Council (NMRC to provide support and exposure for release of a seminal economic study by an economic think tank. This included recruitment of academic and industry experts to provide commentary, and generating earned media pick-up in key national trade journals and major newspapers...."

"IDI was able to provide the client with immediate support to finalize the report, host an event and generate significant earned media. ...The study was also cited by two Democratic presidential candidates as a way to reenergize the U.S. economy."

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The Harm To Municipalities Wanting their own Broadband Services.

The phone companies don't want municipalities to roll out competitive broadband services, even when they, themselves, never fullfilled their obligation to deploy fiber-based services. So, the best way to attempt to block this activitiy is to hire New Millenium Research to do a biased-study.

"Advocates of these municipal Wi-Fi projects argue that they will be inexpensive to operate, foster new business investment and help bring access to underserved communities, but a new study by the New Millennium Research Council, co-authored by Competitive Enterprise Institute Technology Counsel Braden Cox, tells a much different story.

"The study, Not In The Public Interest - The Myth of Municipal Wi-Fi Networks, details that, among other potential difficulties, cities are focusing solely on the start-up costs of wireless broadband networks and ignoring the impact on private sector competition.

Read more about it, based on their email campaign to inform the public.

"RBOC astroturf campaign.---Anti-muni wireless so called studies coming out full tilt.."I was REALLY NAUSEATED by this. This was spam... they found me and sent their stuff. some folk may or mnay not want to give them a piece of their mind."

More Harms: 

Broadband Reports Covered this Report by the Heartland Institute, February 3rd, 2005

Broadband Report writes:

"Ah, the joy of groups who don't disclose their financial sources, claim objectivity, yet are PR extensions of the incumbents and their quest to shape policy. One such group, the Heartland Institute (who also shill for the tobacco industry), this week released another report slamming community broadband; a report you'll see quoted all week long in the media as "independent research", yet is anything but. "

Here's the heartland article ---- Why Muni Wi-Fi Is a False Hope

"This article was developed in cooperation with the New Millennium Research Council,"

"Government spending of taxpayer dollars in questionable ways is nothing new. But today, a growing number of U.S. cities have discovered a new method for using money they probably don’t have on a project that probably won’t work.

"Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco are just three municipalities exploring the use of Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology to build wireless broadband networks with an eye toward providing “free” or substantially discounted wireless Internet access to businesses and individuals.

"The theory goes like this: With widespread wireless Internet access available to anyone, local economies will boom and jobs will come to the city in droves. Though this classic something-for-nothing panacea may sound like a sure-fire winner, it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny: U.S. cities have a poor track record with telecommunications services. There also are other reasons that make it unlikely the promised municipal Wi-Fi utopia will ever materialize."

Lots More About the Wireless Scam

• eWeek Pulls Socket Puppet from Lobbying Firms' Hand, Wifi Networking News, Glenn Fleishman February 3, 2005
• NRMC Report on Municipal Broadband Is Out, Wifi Networking News By Glenn Fleishman, February 3, 2005
• NMRC’s Policy for Hire, February 04, 2005 By Glenn Fleishman There’s a lot more readily available details about the New Millennium Research Council than I realized: The NMRC is the co-publisher of a report that says municipal broadband is anti-competitive and a waste of taxpayer dollars. eWeek broke the news yesterday that they’re a division of Issue Dynamics, Inc., a group that specializes in creating the appearance of grassroots and independent support for ideas on behalf of their clients. They don’t hide this speciality.
• Heartland Institute hackery, The Broadband Blog, 2/3/05
• Philadelphia to Announce Wi-Fi Expansion Plans, By Wayne Rash, February 3, 2005
• While preparing this story, eWEEK.com learned that the NMRC is actually owned and sponsored by Washington lobbying firm Issue Dynamics Inc., whose clients include most of the major telecommunications companies in the United States. Those companies have been active in opposing municipal wireless and broadband efforts. The company claimed that its reports were nevertheless completely independent.
• Municipal Wi-Fi: Let's Keep It Local, Eweek, Carol Ellison, February 3, 2005 "Opinion: Yes, municipal Wi-Fi demands research, but more than that, it needs input from the local voters who will pay for it—not legislators or lobbyists at the state level." ..."Advocates of Big Broadband took their case against municipal Wi-Fi public on Thursday with a new report from the New Millenium Research Council. ...."The NMRC made a point to say that none of theresearchers who participated received any money from NMRC. Butin case you're wondering who's paying the bills at IDI, take alook at its client list. If you don't want to read the wholehuge thing, let me summarize those of interest in this issue:Ameritech, Bell South, Comcast, Pacific Bell, Qwest, SBCCommunications, Sprint, U.S. West, Verizon and VerizonWireless."
• Did Chicken Little Kill Tri-Cities Broadband Referendum in Illinois? Published on 11/3/2004....CHICAGO – "On Tuesday night, getting fiber to the house was defeated in Illinois due to a lot of misinformation being bantered about. It’s time to come out and debunk these pseudo experts and their factually inaccurate reports, writes adjunct Northwestern professor James Carlini. In previous columns, we discussed the Tri-Cities referendum of upgrading network infrastructure to fiber for three Illinois cities (St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva). The referendum was defeated Tuesday night as misinformation was again spread throughout the region. ...."No wonder government policies are messed up in Illinois. Who are people listening to? They are purportedly listening to “independent” think tanks with impressive names like the Heartland Institute in Chicago and the Institute for Policy Innovation in Washington, D.C. and Dallas."

The Harm to Competitor Scam:

Just as TRAC created questionable reports about long distance, Sam Simon's NMRC gets a number of "experts" funded by the Bell companies to use their name and organizations.

An example: This report, by a number of mostly bell funded "experts", trashed a respected report by MCI

• Stephen Pociask, President, TeleNomic Research, LLC. --- The Bio doesn't mention the fact that this person was the "former Chief Economist for Bell Atlantic" for over a decade.
• David P. McClure, President and CEO, USIIA, Bio doesn't say this "ISP" group works with IDI and Verizon.
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There are many other nonprofit research groups that do research for the Bell companies -- stay tuned.