STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MEREDITH ATTWELL BAKER
RE:       Policies to Promote Rural Radio Service and to Streamline Allotment and 
Assignment Procedures (MB Docket No.09-52); Improving Communications 
Services for Native Nations by Promoting Greater Utilization of Spectrum over Tribal 
Lands (WT Docket No. 11-40); Improving Communications Services for Native 
Nations (CG Docket No. 11-41)
There is no dispute that the communications needs facing Tribal nations are great.  
Communications services that many take for granted—something as simple as a dial tone, bars 
on a mobile phone, and the most basic access to the Internet—are just missing in many areas.  
The statistics are staggering, with some estimates putting the broadband adoption rate as low as 
five percent in some parts of Indian Country.  When there is Internet access, it is estimated that 
over 90% of individuals in Tribal communities utilize the Internet at least once a day, much 
greater than the national average.  And for that access, individuals in Tribal lands pay more on 
average:  only 9% pay under $20 per month for Internet access in Indian Country, compared to 
18% nationally, while 11% pay between $61 and $80 per month for Internet access, compared to 
only 1% nationally.
The Commission has recognized these problems repeatedly over the last decade.  In a 2000 
Policy Statement on our government-to-government relationship with Indian Tribes, the 
Commission committed at that time to work with the Tribal communities to ensure “that Indian 
Tribes have adequate access to communications services.”  Fast forward to Acting Chairman 
Copps’ 2009 report, “Bringing Broadband to Rural America,” and the Commission again 
recognized the “unique issues” associated with broadband deployment in Tribal lands.  And most 
recently in the National Broadband Plan–fast approaching its first birthday–we recognized the 
need “to support sustainable broadband deployment and adoption in Tribal lands.”  Yet we still 
have Native American communities with the lowest adoption rates in the country, and we are 
still talking about the problems without proposing any real solutions.
It is time for action, and I hope that includes leaving the confines of the Beltway to hear 
directly from the people impacted by this digital divide.  Given the many different groups 
represented here today, I am certain there is no one-size-fits-all solution.  I commit to consulting 
directly with the people of the Tribal nations as to how we can best help them, whether it’s by 
encouraging the deployment of fixed and mobile broadband or promoting adoption and digital 
literacy.
I am pleased to see the efforts of so many of our Bureaus and Offices, under the guidance 
and leadership of Geoff Blackwell and the Office of Native Affairs and Policy, to formulate a 
coordinated framework under which we can proceed.  I hope that these proceedings that we 
initiate today lead to actual, measurable progress in addressing the communications and 
technology gaps facing Tribal nations.