Native Nations and Federal Telecom Policy Failures: Lessons from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

As Tribes work in record numbers to close the significant digital divide across Indian Country, they need good policy that facilitates self-determined and sustainable solutions. To the contrary, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), became, for many, yet another lesson in the dangers of investing significant sums of federal money into new Internet networks on Tribal lands without regard to local knowledge or priorities, leaving Tribal governments to spend their own time and resources to fix broken processes. This report examines RDOF’s program design in the context of the FCC’s policies on Tribal nations, highlights the practical and fundamental concerns raised by some Tribes about the program, and considers the long-term reverberations it continues to have on broadband funding for Tribes. It concludes that the FCC should have stronger, more clear requirements for ISPs operating on Tribal Reservations.