tribal

Content tagged with "tribal"

Displaying 1 - 10 of 72

Building for Digital Equity Podcast Episode 3: Mikhail Sundust Offers Digital Equity Lessons from Gila River Indian Community

In our third episode on the Building for Digital Equity podcast, we are joined by Mikhail Sundust, Executive Director of the Digital Connect Initiative (DCI) at GRTI - Gila River Telecommunications Incorporated.

A tribal telecommunications company, GRTI has offered telecommunications and now high-quality Internet access to tribal citizens living on the Gila River reservation (and beyond with subsidiaries) for more than 30 years.

The podcast covers the lessons DCI has learned along its digital equity path, including making sure people have the basic digital skills needed to build more advanced skills and confidence. Sundust also discusses how they developed a "bring your own device" program for learning, and have crafted programs that work well with tribal elders.

Finally, Sundust talks about how other Tribal telecom companies are starting to incorporate digital equity planning into their work.

This show is 14 minutes long and can be played on this page or using the podcast app of your choice with this feed.

Listen to other episodes here or see other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.

Thanks to Joseph McDade for the music. The song is On the Verge and is used per his Free-Use terms.

  
 

Mikhail Sundust Offers Digital Equity Lessons from Gila River Indian Community - Building for Digital Equity Podcast Episode 3

Logo for Digital Connect Initative

Mikhail Sundust is the Digital Connect Initiative (DCI) Executive Director for the Digital Connect Initiative at GRTI - Gila River Telecommunications Incorporated. GRTI has offered telecommunications and now high-quality Internet access to the reservation (and beyond with subsidiaries) for more than 30 years.

We talk about lessons DCI has learned along its digital equity path, including making sure people have the basic digital skills needed to build more advanced skills and confidence. They developed a "bring your own device" program for learning and have crafted their programs to work well with elders. We also discuss how other Tribal telecom companies are starting to incorporate digital equity planning into their work. 

This show is 14 minutes long and can be played on this page or using the podcast app of your choice with this feed

Transcript below. 

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes here or see other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.

Thanks to Joseph McDade for the music. The song is On the Verge and is used per his Free-Use terms.

Training to Build the Networks We Want at Broadband Bootcamps - Episode 537 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by ILSR Communications Team Lead Sean Gonsalves to talk about the most recent Tribal Broadband Bootcamp, in Gila River. Tribal attendees from across North America came together - some experienced, and others tackling structural broadband inequities in their regions for the first time - came together to meet each other, share lessons learned, and get hands-on experiences with the nuts and bolts about improving connectivity for families that have long been left behind by the private marketplace. With help from representatives from Gila River Telecommunications, attendees learned about deployment technologies, fiber splicing, security, operations, digital inclusion, and more. Christopher and Sean also chat during the show their recent participation at the the digital equity Los Angeles summit, and first urban broadband bootcamp from ILSR.

This show is 27 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed

Transcript below. 

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.

Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.

Indigenous Connectivity Summit 2022 Begins

The sixth annual Indigenous Connectivity Summit kicked off today in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, bringing together Indigenous community members and leaders; network operators; researchers; and policymakers to focus on how Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada can expand access to fast, affordable, and sustainable Internet connectivity.

Organized by The Internet Society in partnership with Connect Humanity, the four-day, in-person summit will feature workshops, presentations, lightning talks and panel discussions on a range of challenges and opportunities Indigenous communities face as they work to establish both digital equity and digital sovereignty for tribal citizens.

In announcing the summit, Sharayah Lane, Senior Advisor of Community Connectivity at the Internet Society and advisory committee member of the Indigenous Connectivity Institute, captured the meaning of the moment:

The Internet Society has been organizing the Indigenous Connectivity Summit since 2017, but it has always been our goal to transition leadership of the event to the Indigenous communities themselves. Partnering with Connect Humanity and the Indigenous Connectivity Institute will further the goal of developing community-led solutions that will bridge the digital divide for Indigenous people across North America.

A Tribal Wireless Network in Northern California - Episode 521 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Matthew Douglas, Broadband Manager at the Hoopa Valley Public Utility District. At the start of the pandemic, HVPUD launched a wireless network initiative using $2 million in CARES Act funds to benefit Tribal members who had poor or no connectivity options. Matthew shared the lessons they learned during the process (including at one of the first Tribal Wireless Bootcamps), including navigating old-growth forest, navigating equipment and signal challenges in a particularly grueling topography, working with vendors with things don't go as planned, and managing sector costs. Recently, the effort won an NTIA grant to embark on a new fiber work and a wireless backhaul build to bring in significant new capacity to increase speeds and resiliency in the region.

This show is 33 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed

Transcript below. 

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.

Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.

 

A Foundation for the Future of Digital Equity Work - Episode 520 of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast

This week on the podcast, Christopher is joined by Pamela Rosales (Training and Community Engagement Manager, National Digital Inclusion Alliance) and Davida Delmar (Digital Inclusion Manager, Amerind). Pamela and Davida talk about their digital inclusion work and how it differs across Tribal communities as compared to rural and urban areas. They also catch Christopher up on what's going on in cities and nationwide in the digital equity space, from how to develop outreach channels during an ongoing pandemic, 2022's Digital Inclusion Week, NDIA's ongoing Digital Navigator Program that is beginning to ramp up, what we can expect to see down the road in terms of needs and resources, and more.

This show is 31 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed

Transcript below. 

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance here.

Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.

In Our View: Slightly Better FCC Maps on Horizon, Maybe

Welcome to another installment of In Our View, where from time to time, we use this space to share our thoughts on recent events playing out across the digital landscape and take the opportunity to draw attention to important but neglected broadband-related issues.

As its ongoing work to revamp the agency’s notoriously inaccurate broadband coverage maps continues, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last week the opening of a window for states, local and Tribal governments, service providers, and other entities to challenge the service data submitted by providers over the summer.

At the end of June, as FCC chairwoman Jessica Ronsenworcel noted, the FCC “opened the first ever window to collect information from broadband providers in every state and territory about precisely where they provide broadband services.” 

The key word here is “precisely” because the truth is: no one really knows precisely where broadband is, or is not, available. And with tens of billions of dollars in federal funding being spent to deploy high-speed Internet infrastructure, accurate mapping data is essential for targeting where those funds would be best allocated in each state and U.S. territory.

Image

Historically, the FCC relied on self-reported submissions of Internet service providers (ISPs) for information on which locations they serve and what speeds are available at those addresses. However, in practice, that meant the FCC maps could declare an entire census block to be “served” by a broadband provider if that provider claimed the ability to serve just one home in the entire block; thereby overcounting how many households have access to broadband.

Rural Southeast Alaskan Tribes Leverage Spectrum for a Pilot Connecting Hard-to-Reach Communities

The Tlingit and Haida Tribes will leverage $15 million in Rescue Plan funding to bring LTE-based 100 Mbps symmetrical wireless connectivity to 10,000 unserved residents in and around the city of Wrangell, located on Wrangell Island in southeast Alaska. The Internet Service Provider in charge of the buildout is the newly-launched, tribally-owned ISP Tidal Networks. The project is a pilot the tribes plan to expand to all residents of the island, and eventually to other communities in the region.  

The pilot is made possible by Tlingit and Haida’s successful participation in the FCC’s Rural Tribal Priority Window, which allowed tribes to claim space on the 2.5 gigahertz spectrum band. Back in 2019, Tlingit and Haida partnered with southeast Alaska village tribes to gain access to the spectrum, and worked throughout 2021 to “discuss [Tlingit and Haida’s] broadband initiative and opportunities to partner for the broadband project.” 

Utilizing Spectrum to Make Connectivity Feasible

Capital Projects Fund Deadline Extended for Tribes to August 15

The application deadline for the Capital Projects Fund, which will direct $100 million in federal funding to Tribal governments to build broadband infrastructure, has been extended to August 15th, 2022. It's a relateively simple application, offering $167,000 in grant funds to each Tribal government.

The fund explicitly emphasizes capital outlay for new infrastructure projects. From the Department of Treasury, uses include:

Capital assets designed to directly enable work, education, and health monitoring.

Project[s] designed to address a critical need that resulted from or was made apparent or exacerbated by the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Project[s] designed to address a critical need of the community to be served by it.

Examples of projects provided by the Treasury include:

Purchasing digital connectivity devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, or tablets, to facilitate internet access

Purchasing digital connectivity technologies, such as public Wi-Fi, to facilitate internet access

Supplementing another federal government broadband program (e.g., Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, NTIA Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, or other funds) that meet minimum service standards provided by the Capital Projects Fund Guidance

Installing or enhancing broadband infrastructure to serve communities by meeting minimum service standards provided by the Capital Projects Fund Guidance

Constructing or improving buildings, such as multi-purpose community centers, that are designed to jointly enable work, education, and health monitoring

It's worth pointing out, via the Treasury guidance page, that "as of April 4, 2022, applicants are required to provide a Universal Entity ID (UEID) number when applying for CPF funds, and will no longer need to provide a DUNS number." More instructions here.

Additional resources: