As introduced in Topic 6, Indigenous peoples around the world are engaged in First Mile community broadband projects. We covered projects talking place globally through entitites such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as well as in countries including the U.S., Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Here we consider how some of these initiatives are sharing capacity among Indigenous peoples engaged in connecting their communities.
While smaller or local service providers can offer benefits to communities, such approaches come with associated operational risks due to low revenue streams, ongoing network and equipment upgrade requirements, increasing bandwidth costs, staffing, insurance, and so on. As well, management of connectivity services can add an additional burden to small communities who are already busy with public works, housing, land management and other activities.
That said, examples of regional and local Indigenous connectivity providers exist across Canada and around the world. These reflect a variety of organizational models, including for-profit ventures, non-profits, cooperatives, utility models, and public sector organizations. Most take a regional approach and operate as non-profits. Profit-oriented organizations can distribute excess revenues to First Nations owners/shareholders (e.g. Arrow Technology Group in Alberta). These organizations tend to pay for operations through anchor tenants (public service delivery in areas like health and education) and in some cases household customers (retail services). As with commercial providers, infrastructure is often supported through public funding.
Tribal Digital Village
One example of an Indigenous network is the Tribal Digital Village (TDV) in southern California. Since 2000, this solar-powered wireless broadband system has interconnected 19 Indian Tribes in a remote region of San Diego county. In its first nine years of operation, the TDV grew from one computer lab to a network of 1,500 users in 17 reservations. The system consists of 23 towers interconnected through 90 miles of backbone links. Communities involved in the TDV project use the network to provide residential Internet services, as well as broadband services in sectors like health and education.
“As digital citizens, it’s our turn to finish paving the communications infrastructure that is no longer a nice-to-have, but crucial to the self-determination and competitiveness of individuals, communities, and countries everywhere.” (Mark Buell, Internet Society, Regional Vice President – North America, in a 2018 article for Tribal Digital Village)
The TDV was funded by a combination of private companies (including a $5 million grant from Hewlett-Packard), government, and civil society groups. It is also operated by the communities that use the service, and governed by the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association. You can read more about the TDV in a 2012 article by Christian Sandvig, an associate professor at the University of Michigan.
The three videos below begin with an introduction to the TDV from 2011, produced by ZeroDivide, followed by interviews with current director Michael Rantanen, who is also director of technology with the Internet Society. The third video talks about the TDV’s work in 2020.
Tribal Digital Village – Broadband Adoption Program (uploaded Aug. 12, 2011)
Matt Rantanen of TDV, interview by the Institue for Local Self-Reliance (uploaded May 25, 2016)
Matt Rantanen speaks of the partnership between TDVNet & the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) (uploaded Jun 11, 2020)