Last week, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded almost $3.5 million to seven Tribal entities as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP). All awards were for approximately $500,000/
“Reliable and affordable Internet access is critical for Tribal communities to thrive in today’s digital economy,” NTIA Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Alan Davidson said in a press release. “These grants will increase high-speed Internet coverage and expand existing infrastructure to ensure that Tribes are connected to the resources and benefits they need online.”
The awards total $3,449,227.56. The NTIA, which is part of the Department of Commerce, so far has awarded more than $1.79 billion to 198 Tribal entities in the program. The program eventually will grant almost $2.98 billion as part of the Internet for All program. The funding is from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Consolidated Appropriations Act.
The awards:
- Pueblo of Pojoaque: $500,000 to deploy high-speed Internet service via fiber to 75 tribal households. The Tribal land is in New Mexico.
- South Fork Band Council: $500,000 to deploy a tower to provide fixed wireless to the Tribal community center and all houses within its line of sight. The Tribal land is in Nevada.
- Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada: $500,000 to deploy a tower, shelter/central office, fiber feed to the tower and to procure other equipment for the first phase of construction. The project will distribute FTTH fiber cable to the 40 homes and two public facilities on Colony trust lands in Nevada. The platform will be capable of providing fixed wireless access.
- Te-Moak Battle Mountain Band: $500,000 to provide high-speed Internet via fiber to 31 tribal households and eight community anchor institutions. The Tribal land is in Nevada.
- Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma: $500,000.00 to create a wireless site near the tribal headquarters in Perkins, OK for a hybrid fiber/wireless broadband deployment.
- Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians: $482,325 to plan, engineer and study the feasibility and sustainability of an engineering, regulatory and design plan for a 2.5 GHz system to serve Douglas County, OR.
- Quileute Tribe of the Quileute Reservation: $466,902.56 to connect 45 unserved Tribal households, 10 Tribal businesses and five community anchor institutions with 1 Gbps symmetrical service via a 1.2-mile buried and aerial fiber network incorporated into the local incumbent’s existing network. The Tribal land is in Washington.
Last month, the TBCP made grants totaling almost $4 million in Tribes in California, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico and Washington.
