The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today it has awarded nine grants totaling providing more than $73 million in funds as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).
Tribes in six states – California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Nevada and Washington – received grants today.
The projects funded by today’s awards will directly connect 3,107 unserved Native American households that previously had no connectivity to high-speed Internet as well as businesses and anchor institutions. Additionally, the nine grants will create 49 new jobs.
NTIA Tribal Broadband Funds
The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is a nearly $3 billion grant program, with $2 billion in funds coming from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, (IIJA) and $980 million coming from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.
Nearly $2 billion in funding comes from the Notice of Funding Opportunity announced in June 2021. An additional Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for $1 billion in funds from the IIJA will be announced in the coming months, with awards being announced on a rolling basis.
NTIA now has awarded $1.655 billion through the tribal broadband program to 121 Tribal entities.
Earlier this month, NTIA awarded over $224 million through the program.
