Some federal rules and practices don’t recognize the ’special cha...
Some federal rules and practices don’t recognize the “special characteristics” of tribal lands, Sacred Wind Communications said in comments on the FCC’s development of a rural broadband strategy (CD April 3 p15). For example, the definition of a rural…
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community for the Rural Utility Service’s Community Connect broadband grant program “excludes communities that are not registered as Census Designated Places,” and only a handful of the 111 Navajo chapters are registered, Sacred Wind said. Federal law requires environmental and archeological surveys before any construction using federal dollars, even in tribal lands that have either been surveyed or within utility easements, said the carrier, which serves Navajos. Sacred Wind also asked the FCC to give “special consideration” to small rural local exchange carriers for the purchase of wireless spectrum to serve their own customer base. It should give eligible telecom carrier status to national wireless carriers in RLEC territory only where the rural carrier has already been provided affordable spectrum of its own, it said. Sacred Wind also asked the FCC to make arrangements with satellite providers to make satellite service more affordable for RLECs. The carrier discouraged government agencies from setting a broadband speed minimum for grants and loans. “On Navajo lands, for example, the most feasible delivery system to reach all of its communities would differ from one Chapter to the next,” it said.