more news on shiprock

[Tom Coffin]

CLINTON HOPES TO RAISE INDIAN INTERNET USE
Issue: Digital Divide
While visiting the Navajo Nation, in Shiprock New Mexico, President
Clinton introduced a program that would provide low-cost phone service
to Indian Country. Currently, a significant portion of Indian Country
lacks phone service. For instance, no more than 22 percent of
households on the Navajo Reservation have phone service, which raises a
critical barrier to the President's goal of universal connectivity.
The $17 million initiative will be subsidized through a federal
surcharge increase of four-tenths of 1 percent on long distance service
carriers. President Clinton's initiative calls for $1-a-month phone
service to up to 300,000 American Indians throughout Indian Country.
The initiative is an addition to an existing $500 million program for
phone service to disadvantaged communities, and would not require
congressional approval.
[SOURCE: New York Times (A19), AUTHOR: Marc Lacey]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/04/biztech/articles/18bill.html
)



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Tom Coffin .......................... tcoffin at ncsa.uiuc.edu