indigenous
Promoting sustainable and self-managing community networks helps close the digital gap. Noteworthy initiatives advancing toward that goal include Wiki Katat, the first virtual mobile operator headed by a rural and Indigenous community in Mexico.
Organisations that help communities build and manage their own low-cost, open-source communications infrastructure are celebrating a landmark victory: exemption from radio spectrum fees.
The training programme, implemented by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in conjunction with local organisations, culminated with a face-to-face training camp held in Cuetzalán del Progreso, Puebla, Mexico, on 7-17 February 2020.
Peter Bloom highlights trends in spectrum regulation, the importance of empowering communities to govern their own telecommunications, and the need to see spectrum as “a potential to communicate over the airwaves” rather than a commodity to be owned.
Indigenous Community Telecommunications has withstood an important legal battle for the right of indigenous communities to establish and manage their own community networks of mobile phones and internet.
