Internet Service in Remote Spots

A project called Tribal Digital Village is bringing high-speed, wireless internet access to several Indian reservations in California in the United States. The project will aim to link 13 local tribes to the World Wide Web.

"Just as wireless 'hot spots' are giving laptop computer users access to the Internet from places they never could before, wireless Internet delivery systems are bringing high-speed Web access to places left behind by the Internet revolution. 'For many people here, especially kids, the reservation is all they know,' explained Michael Peralta, who is helping oversee the project called Tribal Digital Village. 'This is helping our people connect to the rest of the world.'

Except for a few multimillion-dollar casinos, there is little industry and few jobs on the Southern California reservations. Unemployment runs about 50 per cent. Many of the 7,600 or so residents have never used a computer.

'This is basically a Third World country,' Peralta said. Bringing the Internet to the reservations, he said, 'will hopefully create some job opportunities and education opportunities people here never even knew about.'"

According to this article, the wireless broadband systems the Tribal Digital Village are helping to build are different than Wi-Fi networks used with hot spots. But regardless, many believe that these high-speed internet systems will impact greatly the world's relationship with the Internet. "At a Federal Communications Commission forum on wireless broadband in Washington in May, Chairman Michael Powell called the technology a necessary step toward reaching a 'Holy Grail' of delivering high-speed Internet service to everyone in America."

"Tribal Digital Village got its start with a $5 million grant from Hewlett-Packard Co. Since then, Peralta and his colleagues have received federal funding to help build out the system.

Eventually, the tribes involved could make money from the network by selling high-speed Internet service to local businesses and residents, Peralta said."

Click here for the full article online.

Click here for the Tribal Digital Village website.