WASHINGTON – The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced today it has awarded grants totaling $5,841,477.13 to 12 Tribes as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).
With funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, these new grants bring the total of the program to over $1.76 billion awarded to 147 Tribal entities. Record investments in high-speed internet deployment are a key part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda.
These grants from President Biden’s Internet for All initiative will help reduce monthly Internet service costs, plan for future Internet infrastructure investments, upgrade network equipment, and purchase devices. These new grants will expand Internet access for 164 Tribal households.
“The Biden administration is committed to working with Tribal entities to close the digital divide in Indian country,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “These investments are a downpayment to accessing the benefits of jobs, healthcare, and education that Internet service brings.”
This award is part of the Biden Administration’s commitment to nation-to-nation engagement and an effort to connect everyone in America, including Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service.
The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program is a nearly $3 billion grant program and part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Internet for All Initiative. The funds are made available from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law ($2 billion) and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 ($980 million). The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a historic $65 billion in funding to connect everyone in America.
These grants are part of the TBCP’s equitable distribution process in recognition of the federal Indian trust responsibility and fiduciary obligation to Tribal governments. This process, also laid out in statute, ensures that funding is available to all eligible federally recognized Tribal governments who had a qualifying application. The grants listed below allow for Tribal communities to move forward in planning for future high-speed Internet infrastructure projects or promoting Internet use and adoption.
What They're Saying
A diverse group of stakeholders have offered their support for these grants. Click below to read their statements.
In the next few months, NTIA will release a second Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for an additional round of funding from the TBCP program.
This investment is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which is growing the American economy from the bottom up and middle-out – from rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, to expanding access to high-speed internet, to creating a manufacturing and innovation boom powered by good-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, to building a clean-energy economy that will combat climate change and make our communities more resilient.
Blue Lake Rancheria
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Lake Rancheria, California | CA | Broadband Infrastructure Deployment & and Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability |
$493,400.48 |
With NTIA funding, the Blue Lake Rancheria’s (BLR) Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability Studies and Infrastructure Deployment project will consist of the engineering and design of a resilient 2.2-mile, 48-strand Fiber loop encompassing BLR contiguous trust lands, along with a single 2.5 GHz spectrum radio broadcast location. The project will also construct a 1700-foot section of the middle mile fiber and deploy the 2.5 GHz spectrum for the entire service area, providing broadband speeds with a minimum of 25/3 Mbps with a latency of less than 100 ms to 45 unserved Tribal households, 15 unserved Tribal community anchor institutions, and 8 unserved Tribal businesses. |
Bridgeport Indian Colony
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridgeport Indian Colony | CA | Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability |
$355,153.32 |
The proposed Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability Studies project will fund environmental assessments, design and engineering, and acquisition of materials to create a FTTH last mile network to the 25 Native American households on the Bridgeport Indian Colony reservation, as well as to support the community’s administrative resources. |
Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria | CA | Broadband Use and Adoption |
$495,477.00 |
This Broadband Use and Adoption project will provide Internet broadband bill payment assistance, provide iPads for elders, and pre-pay broadband access for transitional housing facility residents. |
Resighini Rancheria
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resighini Rancheria | CA | Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability |
$499,953.00 |
The proposed Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability project will fund environmental technical studies and compliance documents, as well as network design and engineering to support the future deployment of a fixed wireless backhaul and last mile fiberoptic connectivity, including infrastructure to support future interconnection to fiberoptic services to serve unserved Tribal members. The engineering for a new broadband infrastructure will utilize three spectrum bands (5 GHz, 900 MHz, and 2.5 GHz) and the proposed project would design a Tribal-owned wireless backhaul from a new tower on Tribal land to Crescent City via a Verizon Wireless Tower on Requa Hill. The project intends to benefit 10 households, Tribal offices, the Lena Reed McCovey Community Center, and the Cher’ere Campground & RV Park with future broadband at or above 100/20 Mbps and Tribal facilities with 1000/1000 Mbps. |
The Wiyot Tribe
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Wiyot Tribe | CA | Broadband Use and Adoption |
$499,997.16 |
This Broadband Use and Adoption project will provide pre-payment of gigabit fiber Internet service in three Tribal locations, providing these facilities with reliable high-speed Internet access. |
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation | KS | Broadband Infrastructure Deployment |
$499,741.00 |
The proposed project will install necessary infrastructure to lay the groundwork for the future goals of the Potawatomi Nation to connect all households, as well as unconnected businesses and community anchor institutions, via a fiber network offering minimum 1 Gbps end user speeds. |
Bay Mills Indian Community
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Mills Indian Community | MI | Broadband Infrastructure Deployment |
$499,850.00 |
This Broadband Infrastructure Deployment project will complete a Network Operations Center as a precursor to a future fiber-to-the-premises project. |
Sault Sainte Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sault Sainte Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians | MI | Broadband Use and Adoption |
$500,000.00 |
This Broadband Use and Adoption project will support the cost of prepaid broadband service for the benefit of 1,102 Tribal households for a period of one year. |
Comanche Nation
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comanche Nation | OK | Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability |
$500,000.00 |
This project is a Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability Study designed to complement a shovel-ready project for future funding. The planning study expects to bring 25% design readiness for future funding where final design and construction will be undertaken. |
Burns Paiute Tribe
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burns Paiute Tribe | OR | Broadband Infrastructure Deployment |
$499,728.17 |
The Broadband Infrastructure Deployment project proposes to construct a 195-foot self-sustaining communications tower, replacing existing infrastructure that has reached the end of its life cycle. This project will serve 20 Native American community anchor institutions and 60 unserved Native American households. |
Nisqually Indian Tribe
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nisqually Indian Tribe | WA | Broadband Infrastructure Deployment |
$499,960.00 |
The Broadband Infrastructure Deployment project outlines pre-deployment activities to prepare for full deployment. The project proposes to design and construct an on-reservation Technology Center Pod to provide space for oversight and administration of the Open Access Network (OAN), as part of a larger Broadband Initiative to collaborate with other telecommunications companies in the area to deliver high speed internet services to tribal residents and tribal facilities that currently do not have access to basic internet services. |
Oneida Nation
Applicant |
Location |
Project Type |
Funding Amount |
Project Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oneida Nation | WI | Broadband Infrastructure Deployment |
$498,217.00 |
This Broadband Infrastructure Deployment project will construct a fiber backbone to enable the Oneida Nation to reach a future lower site with fiber for expanding broadband capabilities on the reservation and provide the necessary broadband infrastructure and transport electronics to create a fiber backbone that will be future proof and provide improved resilience and reliability. |
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About the National Telecommunications and Information Administration
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is the Executive Branch agency that advises the President on telecommunications and information policy issues. NTIA’s programs and policymaking focus largely on expanding broadband Internet access and adoption in America, expanding the use of spectrum by all users, advancing public safety communications, and ensuring that the Internet remains an engine for innovation and economic growth.