#27: Connecting the Rez: Broadband on Tribal Lands

Tech Policy Podcast

TechFreedom

Technology

4.8 • 46 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2016

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While the US has enjoyed well over $1 trillion in broadband investment since the mid-90s, connecting Native American reservations to the Internet has proven difficult. 41 percent of residents on tribal land still lack access to a broadband connection, compared to only 10 percent in the US as a whole. Evan and Berin are joined by Jim Dunstan, founder of Mobius Legal Group and longtime representative of Native American tribes. They discuss the hurdles to broadband deployment and adoption on reservations and what steps are needed to bridge the Digital Divide.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the tech policy podcast, your source for policy rants and raves from Tech Freedom,
0:11.5	your Washington, D.C. advocate for the freedom to tinker and innovate. I'm Evan Swartzscharver,
0:16.2	your host. On today's show, broadband deployment and adoption in Native American lands.
0:22.6	Joining me in our DC studio to discuss this is Jim Dunstan, the founder of the Mobius
0:28.4	legal group.
0:29.8	Jim, thank you for joining me.
0:31.2	Thank you, Evan, for having me.
0:32.3	And also joining me is Social Assassin and President of Tech Freedom, Baron Soka.
0:36.9	Baron, thank you for joining me.
0:38.3	I would laugh, but I'm not sure what that means.
0:41.3	Well, let's get right into it.
0:42.3	So Jim, before we delve into the issue, how did you get involved in issues of broadband deployment on tribal lands?
0:49.3	So, Evan, I've spent almost all of my 30-plus year career sort of on the cutting edge of
0:54.9	technologies, both in telecommunications and computer game and outer space law.
1:00.2	I had the opportunity about seven or eight years ago to help the National Congress of American
1:06.0	Indians write the comments for the national broadband plan that the FCC adopted in 2010.
1:12.6	I then had the opportunity to do some work for the Navajo Nation, and I've represented now a number of other tribes over the years.
1:19.6	And so it's really interesting for someone sort of mid-career to suddenly look in the rearview mirror,
1:25.6	and having seen all this great technology, realize in the rearview mirror and having seen all this great technology,
1:27.7	realize in the rearview mirror that there are third world countries within our own borders
1:32.0	here in the United States. It reminds me of that great William Gibson line where he said,
1:36.0	the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed yet. Yes, absolutely. Well,
	...

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