Tribal Digital Divide Policy Brief & Recommendations

In 2019, the American Indian Policy Institute published the “Tribal Technology Assessment: The State of Internet Service on Tribal Lands”. The TTA surveyed residents of tribal reservation residents and found that: 

• 18 percent of tribal reservation residents have no internet access at home, wireless or land-based.
• 33 percent rely on internet service from a smartphone at home. However, the reliability of smartphone internet connections is questionable.
• 31 percent of respondents stated that their connection was ‘spotty’ or they had no connection at home.
• These findings emphasize the need for increased in-home highspeed broadband access for residents of tribal lands.  

The digital divide is not new in Indian Country or other rural areas and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues. For instance, in 2000 the U.S. Census determined that less than 10 percent of tribal lands had access to the internet. In 2019, the FCC acknowledged that the digital divide on rural and tribal lands remains significant with over 26 percent of Americans in rural areas and 32 percent on tribal lands lacking at-home high-speed internet access capable of handling data-intensive services.