Finally tonight, a brief but spectacular take on digital equity.

Matthew Rantan shares his insights from his decades-long work expanding broadband in Indian

country.

You're watching this today.

You're probably looking at it on a mobile device.

And you're very fortunate to be able to do that, that you have streaming capability

to be able to watch something like a video

where Indian country still does not have this access.

I grew up in Washington around some tribes,

the Nezperse, the Cordelaine, the Calville, the Spokane.

I got to see what reservation life was like.

We had played soccer over there, and they didn't have the same resources.

As soon as you drove onto the reservation, things seemed different.

During the Obama administration, I worked with the CTO of the United States

to identify the missing link, right, between why do tribes not have access to broadband?

25 years ago, when fiber optic networks were laid across the United States, they were doing it at a fast pace.

They did not know how to navigate a tribal government.

So they built around the reservation border and kept going.

The benefits of a broadband coverage in the tribal space is that telemedicine, education, access to job search,

vocational training, e-commerce. Without broadband, you don't have access to any of that.

I created the tribal broadband boot camp with Christopher Mitchell. It was in direct response to

an outcry from tribes for information and access to funding and access to resources around broadband.

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