{"id":21168,"date":"2018-01-23T13:18:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T20:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21168"},"modified":"2018-01-23T13:18:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T20:18:49","slug":"opinion-time-to-bridge-the-broadband-gap-in-indian-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/01\/opinion-time-to-bridge-the-broadband-gap-in-indian-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Time to bridge the broadband gap in Indian Country"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jason<\/a>

Jason Small<\/p><\/div>\n

The digital divide is real and it\u2019s widening. Nowhere is this more true than on our reservations around the country. The vast majority of those living on tribal lands have no options to access broadband internet, and the longer this problem persists, the further they get left behind.<\/p>\n

According to data from the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s most recent Broadband Progress Report, 65 percent of Montanans living on tribal land have no access to broadband internet. Compare that to only 4 percent of Americans in urban areas who do not have broadband access.<\/p>\n

Native Americans on reservations are twice as underserved for broadband access as other rural Americans, and are 16 times more likely to be underserved than their urban counterparts.<\/p>\n

Having no broadband access is an unfortunate fact of life in many rural areas of Montana, but Native Americans are disproportionately underserved. The FCC concludes in its Progress Report that \u201crural areas and Tribal lands are being left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does that mean to be \u201cleft behind\u201d?\u00a0 It means our children \u2014 kindergarten through college \u2014 don\u2019t have the same educational opportunities that other Americans have. Many are not receiving the training they need to be prepared for\u00a0tomorrow\u2019s<\/span><\/span>\u00a0job market.<\/p>\n

Lack of broadband access means that Native Americans don\u2019t have the same opportunity to access healthcare. It means they don\u2019t have access to job opportunities and entrepreneurial opportunities that require a broadband connection.<\/p>\n

As our world becomes increasingly connected in the future, those left out are left at a disadvantage in ways we can\u2019t even imagine today.<\/p>\n

Closing the digital divide is one of the most important challenges facing Indian Country today. There\u2019s no easy fix, especially considering that our reservations are in some of the most remote and sparsely populated areas of the country.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>But one solution that needs a serious look is the new technology known as TV white spaces.\u00a0 This refers to delivering broadband internet over the airwaves on un-utilized television spectrum.\u00a0 TV white spaces signals can travel four times further than existing LTE wireless, and are not obstructed by hills, buildings, or trees. In other words, TV white spaces can reach just about anywhere that broadcast television reaches today.<\/p>\n

TV white spaces have been successfully tested over the last decade \u2014 the problem now is that regulatory delays have held up its commercial application. While the FCC has given initial regulatory approval for testing, it has fallen short of finalizing the rules that would allow this technology to be brought to market.<\/p>\n

What is needed is for the FCC to ensure that at least three channels below 700 MHz \u2014 the TV white spaces \u2014 are available for wireless use on an unlicensed basis in every market in the country, with additional TV white spaces available in smaller markets and rural areas.<\/p>\n

TV white spaces aren\u2019t the end all and be all. There will likely be rural areas of the country that it cannot reach. However, a recent analysis from Microsoft estimates that the technology has the potential to deliver broadband internet to 80 percent of the existing underserved population.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for the FCC to move. The digital divide grows by the day, especially in Indian Country. No one should be left out of the advantages brought by access to broadband \u2014 it\u2019s in our power to solve this problem, so let\u2019s get it done.<\/p>\n

You can learn more about TV white spaces and find ways to advocate for increasing broadband access by visiting ConnectAmericansNow.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Jason Small, of Busby, represents Senate District 21. He serves on the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The digital divide is real and it\u2019s widening. Nowhere is this more true than on our reservations around the country. The vast majority of those living on tribal lands have no options to access broadband internet, and the longer this problem persists, the further they get left behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":21169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3864],"tags":[5990,6680,6681,6679],"class_list":["post-21168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-federal-communications-commission","tag-indian-country","tag-jason-small","tag-tv-white-spaces","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21168"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21173,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21168\/revisions\/21173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}