Connecting Indigenous Communities: Examples and Lessons Learned

Indigenous Communities across Canada and the US are among the most underserved in terms of Internet access. It is well established that reliable Internet service i …

Indigenous Communities across Canada and the US are among the most underserved in terms of Internet access. It is well established that reliable Internet service is a key enabler of economic development, entrepreneurship and SMEs, as well as much needed health and education services. Remote locations typical of Indigenous communities present critical challenges in delivering reliable and affordable Internet services.In this presentation, the recent successful deployment in the community of Pu’uhonua o Waimanalo in Hawaii as a private LTE network with an optical fiber backhaul is described. Technical and policy training for members of the community will be outlined. In addition, upcoming deployment in the Northern Canadian community of Uluhokhtak will be covered. Critical lessons learned from these community network deployments will be shared.

Hosein Badran: Dr. Hosein Badran holds the position of Regional Technical Advisor – North America Bureau with the Internet Society, based in Ottawa, Canada. He is an invited member of the Canadian Multi-stakeholder Initiative on IoT Security, where he was the lead researcher and editor of the white paper “Secure IoT: Labels to build trust and empower consumers”, and co-author of the final report “Enhancing IoT Security: Final Outcomes and Recommendations. During his carrier of over 25 years as C-level expert, he spent 14 years with Cisco Systems as Distinguished Systems Architect and Regional Chief Technology Officer as a member of the Cisco CTO Office. He spent the last three years as Director, Special Projects and Innovation, at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), a member of Qatar Foundation, in Doha, Qatar, where he led projects dealing with machine learning and data-driven optimization in different IoT and national socio-economic initiatives including smart transportation, e-health, aviation, and cybersecurity. He worked also with Nortel Networks in Ottawa, Canada, FORE Systems (now Ericsson) in Dubai, and Siemens AG in Munich, Germany. Dr. Badran holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University in Canada. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hosein-f-badran-4b56941/