New Federal Office Focuses on Connecting Native Americans
BY Nancy Scola | Friday, August 13 2010
Photo credit: egyptspiceOne of the more eye-catching findings from March's "National Broadband Plan" outta the Federal Communications Commission was that while broadband penetration in rural American hovers at about 50%, the reach of high-speed Internet in tribal -- as in Native American -- lands is somewhere closer to just 10%. That's some of the context for the news that the FCC has this week created a new Office of Native Affairs and Policy that, said FCC Chair Julius Genachowski, will work to bring broadband and other tools to Native American populations in the hopes of mounting a challenge to the "unacceptably low levels of communications services" in those communities.
The Hill's Gautham Nagesh has the details.
Saying, "I have seen first-hand the unacceptable state of communications throughout much of Indian Country," a place that has borne witness to the fact that, "too many promises have gone unfulfilled, too many grand pronouncements have fallen by the wayside, over generations of our history," FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called yesterday "a day I have long hoped and worked for."