Click Here The Village that built the internet
Apr 3, 2026
Matthew Rantanen, community technologist and Cree descendant who helped build Tribal Digital Village Network, and Zach Hirsch, reporter who narrated the story. They discuss tribal-built broadband, mountaintop radio engineering, youth-led mapping and training, the Tribal Broadband Boot Camp that spreads the model, and struggles with big ISP pushback and network sovereignty.
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Designer Turned Tribal Network Builder
- Matthew Rantanen left Silicon Valley after the dot-com crash and joined local tribes to improve internet access.
- He discovered many reservations had no cell service or broadband and took a personal role in building their connectivity.
Microwave Links Beat Fiber In Tough Terrain
- The tribes repurposed scientific microwave techniques to bridge long distances without fiber.
- They used mountain-top line-of-sight microwave radios inspired by HPREN to bounce signals across desert terrain.
Youth Hiked Mountains To Find Tower Sites
- Teenagers scouted ridgelines with GPS to find tower sites and helped erect the network.
- Within a year TDVNet connected seven reservations, giving them their first reliable internet.