Full Title: Native Nations and Federal Telecom Policy Failures: Lessons from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
Author(s): Jessica Auer
Publisher(s): Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Publication Date: August 5, 2024
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Description (excerpt):
In this report, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance examines some Tribal Nations’ critiques about the Federal Communications Commission’s troubled Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).
Native Nations and Federal Telecom Policy Failures: Lessons from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund situates RDOF’s program design in the longer-term context of the FCC’s policies on Tribal nations, especially with regard to Tribal consultation and consent. Drawing on interviews and public records, it 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.