- Details
- By Tribal Business News Staff
- Economic Development
WASHINGTON — The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration has awarded nine new grants under the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, totaling $40.3 million.
The newly awarded funds bring the total of the program so far to nearly $1.7 billion awarded to 130 tribal entities. The program will top out at $3 billion and is a part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Internet for All Initiative.
The grants draw from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and are designed to expand high-speed internet service network deployment and digital skills training to improve access to education, jobs and health care on tribal lands.
Tribal recipients spanned six states: Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon and Maine. The projects funded by these awards will directly connect 3,222 Native American households that previously had no connectivity to high-speed internet, as well as provide a connection for businesses and anchor institutions. Additionally, the NTIA estimates the nine grants will create 85 new jobs.
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Among the grant awards, the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma received $9.9 million to fund a project to install an 80-mile middle-mile fiber path that will directly connect 36 community anchor institutions as a last-mile system. The middle-mile fiber will connect to a 3.6 GHz fixed wireless system in the community, which will be used to connect 900 unserved Native American households and 860 Native American businesses with qualifying 100/20 Mbps service.
In Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs will use a $6.9 million grant award to install last-mile fiber to directly connect 936 unserved tribal households, 21 unserved tribal business and five unserved tribal community institutions with qualifying broadband service with speeds from 25/3 Mbps to 1000/50 Mbps.
As well, the Pueblo of Santa Clara in New Mexico received $9.1 million to install fiber directly connecting 600 unserved tribal households.
Additional grant awards include:
- Picuris Pueblo Indian Tribe (New Mexico) — $3.7 million
- Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma — $2.6 million
- Ak-Chin Indian Community (Arizona) — $3.09 million
- Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians (California) — $2.7 million
- Fort Independence Indian Reservation (California) — $1.5 million
- Indian Township Tribal Government (Maine) — $500,000
An additional Notice of Funding Opportunity for $1 billion in funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be announced in the coming months. NTIA held three tribal consultations with tribal leaders to solicit their input on the upcoming Notice of Funding Opportunity.
