Institute for Local Self Reliance
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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 exami
Panhandle Telephone Co-op Will Build Fiber Network in Rural New Mexico With $43 Million Grant (Institute for Local Self Reliance)
Submitted by Grace Tepper on Tue, 07/18/2023 - 11:21ILSR Announces the Digital Health Story Collection to Share Experiences with or Difficulties Accessing Telehealth Care in the US (Institute for Local Self Reliance)
Submitted by Grace Tepper on Thu, 01/06/2022 - 17:52The Pros of Public Internet Networks (and Lessons Learned)
Incumbent telephone and cable companies, as well as a variety of anti-government think tanks, frequently label community broadband networks as failures. The truth is that the vast majority of community broadband networks, particularly fiber-to-the-home networks, have tremendously benefited their community. Telco and cableco slurs against them are predicated on ignorance; they assume that most people will not independently research the supposed failures.