Eliminate the Digital Divide for Tribes & Rural America!
Support LightSquared’s FCC Application and TW's Projects
TAKE ACTION BEFORE MARCH 30, 2012
Indian Country Today Article on 3/26/2012: "High Speed Internet Project in Indian Country Needs Petitions to FCC"
Tehan Woglake, Inc. is committed to working with Tribes and rural communities to close the digital divide that threatens the long-term economic health of America
What Must Change
§ As the Federal Communications Commission noted in 2004, “By virtually any measure, communities on tribal lands have historically had less access to telecommunications services than any other segment of the population. Broadband deployment in Indian Country is at less than a 10 percent penetration rate while analog telephone reaches only one in three families in many Tribal communities.”[i]
§ This is the digital divide that disadvantages Native Americans.[ii]
§ Similar to Tribal communities, rural areas are critically underserved. In fact, only 38% of rural households (compared to 57% and 60% percent for city and suburb households) have access to high-speed broadband services.[iii]
§ Also in a recent report issued by the USDA[iv], it was clear that high-speed broadband access plays a crucially important role in beginning to address rural economic development, health care, and public safety issues.
§ The absence of access to high speed broadband “is helping create a country of broadband haves and have-nots—a division that not only makes it harder for businesses to get work done, but also impedes workers’ efforts to find jobs, puts students at a disadvantage, and generally leaves a wide swath of the country less connected to the growing store house of information on the web—from health sites to news magazines to up-to-date information on Presidential candidates.”[v]
Sources:
[i] Extending Wireless Telecommunications Services to Tribal Lands, WT Docket No. 99-266, Third Report and Order, 19 FCC Rcd. 17652 (2004) Federal Communications Commission, Tribal Lands Bidding Credit and Order.
[ii]New Media, Technology and Internet Use in Indian Country: Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses, Native Public Media (2009) – available at http://www.tehanwoglake.com/new-media-technology-and-internet-use-in-indian-country.html
[iii]Arik Hesseldahl. “Bringing Broadband to Rural America” Bloomberg Business Week, September 18, 2008—available at http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2008/tc20080917_797892.htm
[iv] USDA Rural Development: Bringing Broadband to Rural America - http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rd/pubs/RDBroadbandRpt.pdf
[v] Ibid IV
§ This is the digital divide that disadvantages Native Americans.[ii]
§ Similar to Tribal communities, rural areas are critically underserved. In fact, only 38% of rural households (compared to 57% and 60% percent for city and suburb households) have access to high-speed broadband services.[iii]
§ Also in a recent report issued by the USDA[iv], it was clear that high-speed broadband access plays a crucially important role in beginning to address rural economic development, health care, and public safety issues.
§ The absence of access to high speed broadband “is helping create a country of broadband haves and have-nots—a division that not only makes it harder for businesses to get work done, but also impedes workers’ efforts to find jobs, puts students at a disadvantage, and generally leaves a wide swath of the country less connected to the growing store house of information on the web—from health sites to news magazines to up-to-date information on Presidential candidates.”[v]
Sources:
[i] Extending Wireless Telecommunications Services to Tribal Lands, WT Docket No. 99-266, Third Report and Order, 19 FCC Rcd. 17652 (2004) Federal Communications Commission, Tribal Lands Bidding Credit and Order.
[ii]New Media, Technology and Internet Use in Indian Country: Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses, Native Public Media (2009) – available at http://www.tehanwoglake.com/new-media-technology-and-internet-use-in-indian-country.html
[iii]Arik Hesseldahl. “Bringing Broadband to Rural America” Bloomberg Business Week, September 18, 2008—available at http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2008/tc20080917_797892.htm
[iv] USDA Rural Development: Bringing Broadband to Rural America - http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rd/pubs/RDBroadbandRpt.pdf
[v] Ibid IV
