{"id":34731,"date":"2024-01-22T00:02:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T05:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=34731"},"modified":"2024-01-22T00:02:36","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T05:02:36","slug":"stateline-tribes-tackle-broadband-disparities-in-indian-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/01\/22\/stateline-tribes-tackle-broadband-disparities-in-indian-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Stateline: Tribes tackle broadband disparities in Indian Country"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Cameron,<\/a>
Cameron, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation. Photo: Marco di Pisa<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Native nations with scarce internet are building their own broadband networks<\/div>\r\n
Monday, January 22, 2024<\/div>\r\n
By Madyson Fitzgerald, Stateline<\/a> <\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n On the Hopi Reservation\u2019s more than 1.5 million acres of desert landscape in northeast Arizona, most residents live in villages atop arid mesas.

<\/P>\r\nBelow ground, there\u2019s a network of copper wires that provides telephone and internet service. Hopi Telecommunications in\u00a02004 bought\u00a0the company that had installed them, but has been struggling ever since to upgrade the network to broadband speeds.

<\/P>\r\nHopi Telecommunications<\/a> serves both the Hopi reservation and parts of the surrounding Navajo Nation. To broaden access, the company provided free internet for students during the COVID-19 pandemic and began offering discounted prices for residents through a federal program.

<\/P>\r\nBut the copper wires aren\u2019t reaching all the reservation\u2019s residents, nor providing the fastest service, as fiber optic cables would. Hopi Telecommunications received two federal grants \u2014 one from the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program and the other from the Rural Utilities Service<\/a> \u2014 to provide fiber directly to homes. But the project, which began in September, won\u2019t be finished until sometime in 2025.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s very important for us to have the higher bandwidth, and we can\u2019t do that with copper,\u201d said Alicia Youvella, the company\u2019s service order coordinator. \u201cIt\u2019s literally like pulling the veins out of the earth and having to relay down new ones.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nNative nations historically<\/a> have lagged in access to high-speed internet, because of the cost and incomplete broadband coverage data, among other barriers. The inequity became even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when broadband internet service was a crucial lifeline for people stuck in their homes.

<\/P>\r\nSo, some Native nations such as the Hopi are taking the matter into their own hands by building their own networks to provide high-speed internet. They also are tapping into a recent increase in state and federal funding<\/a> to expand broadband across the country.

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Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus. In 1936, roughly 90% of America\u2019s urban areas had access to electricity, while roughly the same proportion of rural America was still in the dark. The Rural Electrification Act, signed that year as part of President Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal, turned on the lights in…<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s within our mission to be able to be self-sufficient to hopefully grow in a way that we can provide the types of services that are needed out here,\u201d Youvella said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve had a boost \u2014 in small little steps \u2014 but it\u2019s happening.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nBroadband technology<\/a>, including fiber networks, wireless networks and satellite, allows data to move much more quickly than dial-up internet through copper telephone lines.

<\/P>\r\nIn 2020, more than 18% of people living on tribal lands didn\u2019t have access to broadband technology, compared with about 4% of people living in non-tribal areas, according to a report<\/a> from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The agency analyzed the data after a previous GAO report found that Federal Communications Commission data was overstating<\/a> broadband internet access on tribal lands, making it difficult to win additional funding and support.

<\/P>\r\nSome states are trying to help tribal efforts. In 2023, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon enacted laws to support broadband expansion by\u00a0streamlining funding to local governments, including tribes and underserved communities.

<\/P>\r\nOne of the measures in California\u2019s Digital Equity Bill of Rights, a first-of-its-kind bill signed into law<\/a> by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in October, outlines how the state should ensure that all Californians have equal access to broadband. The new law was pushed by the California Emerging Technology Fund, a nonprofit aimed at closing the state\u2019s digital divide<\/a> \u2014 the widening gap between who can and cannot access digital technology.

<\/P>\r\nBut Matthew Rantanen, the director of technology at the Southern California Tribal Chairmen\u2019s Association, says there\u2019s still work to do nationwide. Rantanen, a descendant of the Cree Nation, has worked for two decades with Native communities across the country to secure broadband access.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cAs you\u2019re sitting there physically building a network you run into a lot of, \u2018Well, how come we can\u2019t get funding for this when everybody else can?\u2019, or \u2018Tribes don\u2019t have access to this spectrum because nobody\u2019s using it,\u2019 and so on,\u201d Rantanen said. \u201cAnd so, you start fighting these policy pieces and figuring out there\u2019s a lot of parts that need to be sorted.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nRantanen hosts Tribal Broadband Bootcamps<\/a> to equip tribes to build and maintain wireless networks in their communities.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cYou can\u2019t be a part of society if you don\u2019t have access to the resources,\u201d Rantanen said. \u201c[Internet is] hand-in-hand now with water and a roof over your head and electricity to be able to be a citizen in this day and age.\u201d

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