<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>The complexities of realizing broadband provision on native lands continue to be daunting.</div><div>Are there some ways that we can facilitate the 'red tape', multi-agency impositions and timeframes and tribal needs,</div><div>so as to get win-win outcomes for the people in these areas? Even the smallest of steps forward might be worthwhile.</div><div>Richard</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px; font-weight: bold; ">Broadband access in Native American communities lagging far behind</span></div><div class="ftr-header"><p class="byline"><em><a href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/25/tech-report-broadband-access-in-native-american-communities-lagging-behind/?refid=0">http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/25/tech-report-broadband-access-in-native-american-communities-lagging-behind/?refid=0</a> </em></p><p class="byline">
<em>By
<a href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/tools/search/author/author_collection.php?aut_id=30265">John Moe</a>
</em>
<em>Marketplace Tech Report,
<a href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/collections/coll_display.php?coll_id=20264">Monday, April 25, 2011</a>
</em>
</p>
<div class="listen-transcript"><p id="listenButton"><a class="listenStory" target="_blank" href="http://marketplace.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/popup.php?name=marketplace/tech_report/2011/04/25/marketplace_tech_report20110425_64&endtime=00:00:00:0">Listen to this Story</a></p>
</div><p class="blurb">The Obama administration has made broadband
availability a major priority. But while access is around 65 percent in
the general population, in Native American communities, it's around 5 to
10 percent.</p>
</div>
<div class="ftr-body">
<div class="pics">
<img src="http://images.publicradio.org/content/2011/04/22/20110422_nativeamericanmap_18.jpg" alt="Service map "><p class="caption">Service map of Sacred Wind Communications
(Sacred Wind Communications)</p>
</div>
<div id="ftr-story"><p>That's obviously a big gap. We talk to John Badal. He runs a company called <a href="http://www.sacredwindcommunications.com/" name="" title="" class="inline_link_external" target="_blank">Sacred Wind Communications</a>,
which is trying to bring broadband access to Native communities in New
Mexico. He says customers he talks to desperately want to be able to get
online but he says the biggest hurdle in making that happen is getting
through red tape.</p><p>"Most
areas that we serve, we have to get permission from the tribe and from
the Bureau of Indian Affairs to survey a particular site," he says.
"Once we get that permission to survey the site, then we have to go out
and conduct a center line survey and archaeological and environmental
assessment and package all of those things with proper documentation.
Pay a permit fee, submit it to various jurisdictions depending on who's
managing the lands. That process can take from six months to two and a
half years."</p><p>We also talk to Geoffrey Blackwell, chief of the the <a href="http://www.fcc.gov/indians/" name="" title="" class="inline_link_external" target="_blank">Office of Native Affairs and Policy for the FCC</a>.
Blackwell says that getting some of these homes online means
coordinating efforts among federal agencies but also between those
agencies and state and tribal agencies.</p><p>Blackwell
cites a recent study that says Native American households are more
likely to adopt broadband when it's available than the general
population is. The challenge is getting that access to happen.</p><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><div>------------------------------------------------------------</div><div>Richard Lowenberg<br>P. O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504<br>505-989-9110 off.; 505-603-5200 cell</div><div>------------------------------------------------------------</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><br></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
</div>
<br></body></html>