Trial Ready announces partnership with OSS/BSS software company.

Smith Bagley, Inc., is asking the FCC to provide more money to the Tribal Lifeline benefit.

Issues include the high costs of building infrastructure, the need for tribal sovereignty, and the importance of partnering with tribes.

Federal agencies must compensate Tribes or consulting parties for services performed on historical sites.

The company needs to be designed as an Eligible Telecommunications Carrier to promote the Lifeline option, it said.

Tribal governments can now submit proposals through March 22, 2024, rather than January 23.

What's the status of tribal broadband connectivity in anticipation of the NTIA's second funding round?

The federal government has failed to uphold its trust responsibility to provide health, safety and welfare to Native American tribes.

The fund is set to run dry in 2024.

Feedback could help Tribes improve future funding applications and expand broadband infrastructure.

The FCC broadened the E-rate eligibility to tribal colleges used as public libraries.

How are Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program projects progressing, and how will they interact with BEAD projects?

The lengthy grant application process can be a barrier for Tribes with limited resources.

Tribal leaders say they need to gather data to ensure that Tribal nations receive funding necessary for broadband.

Tribal leaders and citizens must gather data ‘on a scale large enough to ensure that Tribal nations receive’ funding.

18% of people living on Tribal lands lack broadband access, compared to 4% of residents in non-tribal areas.

‘You need to get a little better about talking to and listening to native communities,” the chairman told the FCC.

The Commerce Department has now made a total of 63 awards totaling more than $601 million in Tribal funding.

Urban Digital Equity Bootcamp and Let’s Get Going Broadband Program announced.

The NTIA awarded four grants worth $1.2 million.

At a White House event an agency representative said webinar programs are likely for Indigenous communities.

‘You should build a relationship with your telecommunications field representative,’ Edyael Casaperalta said.

Shekinah Pepper said Wednesday tribal communities should be on alert for service providers asking for chunks of subsidies upfront.

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held Wednesday hearing exploring broadband investments in Tribal communities.

California also has 18 projects that are part of the state’s $6-billion broadband investment under its California Comeback Plan.

Indigenous connectivity advocates said Native Americans should have control over their mapping data.

It’s worth focusing on other broadband programs run by NTIA, including Tribal Connectivity, and Connecting Minority Communities.

October 24, 2020 – The Federal Communications Commission on Friday granted its first licenses in the 2.5 GigaHertz (GHz) spectrum to 154 tribal applicants during the agency’s first Rural Tribal Priority Window. The licenses provide exclusive use of up to 117.5 megahertz of 2.5GHz spectrum and will p

August 19, 2020 — Members of the Rural Caucus and the Native American Caucus of the Democratic Party made calls for modernizing broadband and energy infrastructure during caucus meetings on Tuesday. As part of the Democratic National Convention, members of the Rural Caucus opened their meeting by ob

May 21, 2020 — The Federal Communications Commission announced Monday that it would accept the so-called “short-form” applications for its Rural Digital Opportunity Fund reverse auction beginning on July 1 and continue until July 15. The agency also announced that the auction of the monies for this

May 12, 2020 — Education officials catalogued the many government broadband programs devoted to bridging the digital divide affecting tribal communities hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. For example, during the Tuesday teleconference of the Universal Service Administrative Company, speakers from

The webinar painted a grim picture of the state of broadband in rural and Tribal life

A report published by tech.co on Wednesday ranks and categorizes the countries with the highest internet censorship. Among the reports most salient findings: Turkmenistan, North Korea, and China earned the top three spots, in decreasing order of censorship. Many popular vacation destinations like Vi

WASHINGTON, January 14, 2020 – Federally-recognized Indian tribes will have a six-month priority window, beginning February 3, in which to apply for access to the radio frequency spectrum available at 2.5 GigaHertz (GHz). At a workshop at the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, Chairman Aj

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on Tuesday introduced the Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act, Public Knowledge reports. The bill would provide interoperability for social media users, promoting competition and ena

WASHINGTON, September 24, 2019 – Better broadband and 5G development is essential to the livelihood of tribal communities, according to representatives from government and telecom at the National Tribal Broadband Summit on Tuesday. Many tribal members have no clear idea of who owns the available spe

WASHINGTON, August 12, 2019 — The Federal Communications Commission on Monday authorized over $121 million in rural broadband funding, marking the fourth wave of support from last year’s Connect America Fund Phase II Auction. The funding is expected to bring broadband access to more than 36,000 unse

On Friday afternoon, the Federal Trade Commission has issued a fine of $5 billion to Facebook for privacy violations. Adam Satariano of the New York Times reported that regulators and lawmakers in the U.S. and abroad have begun conducting investigations and proposing new sanctions against the Silico

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2019 — The Federal Communications Commission will vote in July on whether or not to auction off unused portions of the 2.5 GigaHertz (GHz) spectrum band to advance the deployment of 5G wireless networks. Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement that the order would “modernize an ou

WASHINGTON, May 30, 2019 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing $858 million in loans to upgrade rural electric systems across 17 states, benefiting around 450,000 consumers. Approximately 7.5% of this funding will be used to finance smart grid technologies, allowing for more efficient el

SOURCE: The Federal Communications Commission WC Docket No. 10-90 The Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announces the availability of illustrative model results intended to aid parties that are preparing comments in response to the 2018 Rate-of-Return Reform NPRM.1 In that NPRM, the Commission so

BROADBAND BREAKFAST INSIGHT: The role of wireless, which is one key piece of the broadband puzzle for rural areas, will be considered at the New America Foundation on Tuesday at Noon, together with Kelsey Guyselman, policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and an ar

WASHINGTON, November 16, 2017 — In a move harshly condemned by Democrats and consumer advocates, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted along party lines to significantly restrict the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline program, which provides subsidies to enable lower-income consumer

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2017 — Infrastructure plans in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget represent a significant break from his predecessor not only in the brick-and-mortar variety, but also in the next generation of infrastructure for the next generation of the American economy — wired and wireless

WASHINGTON, January 31, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Tuesday announced the formation of a new federal advisory committee that would seek to accelerate deployment of high-speed broadband nationwide, and to close the digital divide, by providing a model approach to dep

WASHINGTON, Friday  October 28, 2011.  The Federal Communication Commission unanimously voted to overhaul its outdated the Universal Service Fund and reform its intercarrier compensation fund at yesterday morning’s Open Commission Meeting. The FCC predicts that an effort to expand high speed interne

WASHINGTON March 10, 2011 – Internet2, the nationwide ultra high-speed education network, announced that it will increase the network’s speed by a factor of nearly 900. The network’s existing speed is already approximately 1,000 times as fast as a the fastest widely-available high-speed residential

Long Term Evolution is growing faster than any other mobile platform in history, according to a recent report from the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA). The GSA report includes both variants of LTE: Time Division Duplex and Frequency Division Duplex.  Mobile carriers are developing 128 netw

WASHINGTON, September 16, 2010 – The Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Thursday announced two American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investments, totaling $6.1 million in grants, to North Carolina and Washington.

WASHINGTON, September 14, 2010 – This week is the second annual “National Lifeline and Link Up Telephone Discount Awareness Week” brought to you by the Federal Communications Commission, National Association of Regulatory Commissioners and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates

WASHINGTON, September 13, 2010 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced 43 new broadband grants across 27 states. Overall, these grants will receive $518 million in government funding and $34.1 million in private investment.

WASHINGTON, September 7, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission late last week laid out part of its plan to reform the universal service fund, including pushing Sprint and Nextel to live up to their commitments to surrender their high-cost universal support over five years.

WASHINGTON, August 16, 2010- New Mexico entities received a $10.6 million broadband stimulus grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and support for a $63.8 million project from the Rural Utilities Service of the Department of Agriculture. The NTIA grant will be g

WASHINGTON, August 13, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission recently established an office to better focus on communications infrastructures in tribal lands and native communities. The office will be headed by Geoffrey Blackwell, and will be part of the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affair

WASHINGTON August 4, 2010 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced the funding of 126 new broadband projects with a funding total of $1.2 billion. The projects will span 38 states and a number of Native American tribal areas.

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2010- H.R. 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, will require online gaming sites to purchase licenses and subscribe to existing gambling laws. In a hearing this week the main stakeholders voiced their concerns.

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2010 – The Federal Communications Commission [https://broadbandbreakfast.com/tag/fcc/] has extended the deadline for nominating new members to the Native Nations Broadband Task Force [https://broadbandbreakfast.com/tag/native-nations-broadband-task-force/].