Free the Airways - Bring High Speed Wireless Internet to Indian Country

Newsflash

Last Updated (Tue Aug 19 2008 14:12) Written by Rosemarie McKeon

PLEASE consider signing  or customizing a petition on Freetheairways.com to the FCC that you want open FREE access to the predominately unused radio waves of analogue TV (the static when you channel surf) so as to convert it to high speed Internet access to Indian country!

High Speed Internet has a profound impact on the growth of GIS products and access to online and mobile GIS resources has become a standard for developing locational intelligent applications. GIS on the Internet allows a wide range of applications to tribal governments and increases the accessibility of these products to their associated communities.

For more information, here is a video of Matthew R. Rantanen, Director of Technology for the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association. Listen to what he says about what wireless Internet access has meant to San Diego County Native American tribes and 3 tribes in Riverside County. He talks about how opening up the unused TV signal radio waves could greatly expand those benefits.

For review, recycle or re-customization, here is a customized petition, identifying how Native American tribes could put the radio waves to good use.

An explanatory article on ars tecnica about Google launches white space offensive with new web site

Finally,  explore the Wireless Innovation Alliance at http://www.wirelessinnovationalliance.org/ and see what all the fuss is about and the amazing list of collaborating partners.