Tribal Broadband Update
Author: Todd Hoskins Issue: 2024-03-06
Tribal Broadband Update
by Todd Hoskins
This weekend I will be driving southeast from Los Angeles for three hours for the 11th Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, 3-day immersive experiences to teach tribal leaders the fundamentals of building broadband networks. This bootcamp in the high desert of southern California will focus on fiber. We will be building a fiber ring on a ranch, shovels in hand. The bootcamps are one piece of a growing ecosystem aimed at increasing affordable internet access and developing sovereign networks for Native American tribes across the country.
The lack of broadband connectivity in tribal communities represents one of the starkest digital divides in the United States. According to the FCC, about half of households on tribal lands lack access to broadband as defined by minimum speed thresholds. But the data tells only part of the story - even where broadband exists, it is often unaffordable for tribes facing high poverty rates, and across many reservations they need electricity before they can think about connectivity.
A Sea Change for Tribal Broadband
All of that is starting to change thanks to a new federal prioritization of digital equity for Native communities. The 2021 Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program provided over $1 billion for tribal broadband, and the 2022 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated another $2 billion through the NTIA’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.
In total, upwards of $5 billion in broadband funding could soon flow to tribal lands across the country. It’s likely only half of what is needed to provide 100% access. But maximizing the impact of these dollars will require something that has been in short supply - native leadership and broadband expertise within the tribes themselves.
Developing that leadership pipeline has become the driving mission of the Tribal Resource Center (TRC), an organization I help steward under the leadership of Matt Rantanen, the tribal broadband warrior who has been building networks for nearly 20 years. The TRC emerged in 2021 as a hub for knowledge sharing, resource validation, and fostering connections across the 576 federally recognized tribes and partners that provide services.
Over the past two years, the TRC has published over 300 articles and videos on planning, funding, deploying and maintaining tribal broadband networks. A team of native liaisons has conducted outreach while a help desk fields inquiries across eight topic areas. We’ve hosted ten intensive bootcamps reaching over 500 individuals from more than 175 tribes.
Each bootcamp brings together participants, instructors, and partner organizations for hands-on learning and relationship building. Bootcamps exemplify that spirit of cross-pollination, with representatives from tribal nations, universities, non-profits, government agencies and research networks all coming together. There have been more than 500 participants in the bootcamps thus far.
Training a New Generation of Native Leaders
But as the flow of broadband funding accelerates, one critical need has risen to the forefront - developing the human capacity for tribes to lead their own network buildouts and ongoing operations. There is a growing consensus that a lack of experienced native technology leaders could become the biggest bottleneck hampering tribes from maximizing this generational opportunity.
To meet this challenge, the TRC is preparing to launch a new “third leg” alongside our existing resources and bootcamps - the Native-Led Tribal Broadband Academy. If fully funded, the multi-year Academy would provide in-depth technical and business training to 100 native leaders, each of whom could then mentor others within their tribes.
Through hands-on and virtual learning, the Academy aims to cultivate expertise across five key workforce domains: technical leadership, network maintenance, broadband business operations, field tech installation, and grant writing. We are in pitch mode, having written 10 grant applications and spoken with various philanthropists.
Broadband is no magic elixir, but it is an increasingly vital prerequisite for economic opportunity, civic engagement, and social connection in the 21st century. The generational injustice of tribal communities being left behind in the digital divide is finally being acknowledged and addressed. But translating new funding into actual broadband access and affordability will require cultivating leadership from within.
I feel immensely fortunate to be part of a growing network building those connections - between tribes, between resources, between partners and allies on this journey. Because it’s only by coming together that we can bridge the divide, not just with fiber cables but with human bonds of trust. Affordable broadband means more choices for native communities, and more sovereignty over their collective futures.
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Related:
- Todd Hoskins (author)
- 2024 (year)
- Topics: Community Building, Governance and Democracy, Work and Organizations