Internet Society releases Indigenous connectivity recommendations

Indigenous stakeholders in Canadian telecoms are renewing their calls for the government to develop a spectrum priority window for Indigenous communities and a fund set aside for Indigenous connectivity projects. Last month, the Internet Society (ISOC) held its 2021 Indigenous Connectivity Summit (ICS) where a group of individual stakeholders, mostly from Indigenous communities, collectively developed a new set of policies to address connectivity. This year’s recommendations fall into six categories: inclusivity, community consultation, engagement; spectrum rights and sovereignty; engaging local capacity in Indigenous communities; infrastructure and ownership; beyond infrastructure: digital literacy, data sovereignty, and sustainability; affordability; and effective and accurate mapping. The report, like in 2020, renews calls for the government to find different ways of utilising spectrum licences to improve Indigenous connectivity. “Spectrum, like water, is a critical natural resource for Indigenous communities. Federal regulators must therefore ensure that Indigenous governments, Indigenous-owned entities, and communities have first rights to the spectrum over their lands. There is already precedent for spectrum sovereignty in New Zealand, where the Māori people were able to secure radio spectrum over their lands under the terms of an 1840 treaty with European colonizers,” the report reads. Although the approach in New Zealand has been touted as the most progressive regarding Indigenous spectrum sovereignty, the report recommends that Canada follow the path taken in the United States through its Indigenous priority window. “Indigenous communities should have first access to spectrum over their land during spectrum auctions and if spectrum licenses are transferred, the community should have first right of refusal. Indigenous communities should also be able to financially benefit from their spectrum by being able to lease it to providers,” the report reads. “Unused spectrum over Indigenous lands should be reallocated for Indigenous use.” In an ICS panel on spectrum Dish Network developer Max Orcutt noted that since the United States implemented its 2,500 Mhz Rural Tribal Priority Window there has been the creation of potentially tribal owned mobile virtual network operators, “and so a lot of tribes could then kind of set up their own telco companies and not only provide to the home but also mobile broadband via a smartphone,” he said. Deborah Simpier, CEO and cofounder of Althea -- United States-based internet service platform that brings service to underserved communities through a revenue sharing model -- said LTE is important to develop smart cities for Indigenous communities to monitor natural resources like water, agriculture, cattle and livestock. Her company in response is designing a core that can be owned and operated by smaller operators like Indigenous networks that can then roam with larger carriers. “So what we can do with that then is have infrastructure that the tribal network could own and operate,” she said. “However, working in the unlicensed space gets pretty crowded, you get a lot of problems pretty quickly and getting licences can be really expensive. So I really appreciate that there's conversations happening about ‘maybe there's a better way to share spectrum or licenced spectrum’ or ‘maybe there's a different configuration solutions that we can have to provide that that access.’” The report also renewed calls for an Indigenous Broadband Fund and centralized database that captures funding opportunities to make it easier for Indigenous communities to apply for projects which they are often left out of, according to the report. “Federal funding opportunities, including development funds, should prioritize community choice, including through community networks, public-private partnerships, mesh networks, and access to Low Earth Orbit satellites where available. These opportunities should also start at the ‘First Mile’ in unconnected communities and ensure sustainability by including support for operational expenses,” the report reads. In the United States, Indigenous stakeholders can receive up to $3 million dollars through its Indigenous-only Community Opportunity Readiness Program. At a panel on low-earth orbit satellites (LEOs), panelist Joseph Hickey, CEO and founder of ROCK Networks -- an end-to-end communications systems integrator -- said that government subsidies for fibre-to-home solutions is the most ideal because it is maximized by having a future proof solution for rural and Indigenous communities. “The issue with these types of technologies is they are not future proof. That technology is not going to be around in 10, 20 and 30 years.” In Labrador satellite services with the Canadian government are eligible for up to 90 per cent subsidy in the universal broadband fund, so the cost of the downlink into the community is very heavily subsidised. “Which would enable us if you think about a user side to offer internet access, a 50/10 light connection, at the price that people would pay with a wireless ISP in northern Canada today. So the retail price will be similar to what others would pay, even though the cost of deploying that is much higher, and that's tied to the amount of subsidy that we receive. So the goal is, rural Canadians shouldn't really pay a whole lot more than urban Canadians for an equivalent type service,” he said. The report also noted that non-Indigenous ISPs should receive cultural education training and other “community-critical information” from Indigenous communities (i.e. sacred sites) prior to deploying service. In addition, it recommended that Indigenous peoples should be commissioned to provide this kind of policy guidance to the government, and hired to assist communities in funding applications, which would also have the benefit of creating more jobs for Indigenous people. - Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca.

Internet Society releases Indigenous connectivity recommendations

News | November 9, 2021

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Internet Society releases Indigenous connectivity recommendations

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