A renewed effort is underway to accelerate broadband infrastructure construction within the Navajo Nation, an effort that has only gained more currency since Covid-19’s onset.
“When layering broadband issues with the lack of adequate transportation, electricity, and water for many Navajo families, the end result is a reduced quality of life, especially in the midst of a worldwide pandemic,” Navajo Nation President Johnathan Nez remarked during a conference last week with Department of Commerce officials.
Nez urged the federal government to take strong steps to help erase what he called the “digital divide” for both the “Navajo Nation and underserved communities everywhere.”
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo agreed that the recent pandemic has “exacerbated the digital divide in Indian Country,” adding that her department is committed to bringing the “full weight of its resources to accelerate broadband infrastructure deployment in partnership with the Navajo Nation.”
Beginning in February, the Commerce Department has hosted a series of listening sessions with tribal leaders across the country as it develops what is called a Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.
That program has now received up to $1 billion in funding through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 with the idea of both deploying broadband infrastructure in Native American lands as well as establishing what are described as “affordable broadband programs” in those same regions.
The connectivity program, said Raimondo, will provide an opportunity to “address connectivity issues for the Navajo Nation schools, chapter houses, and other government facilities, and provide a new gateway for the Navajo people to conduct commerce and work force development in a digital economy.”
Further broadband infrastructure throughout the country’s tribal lands is the focus of President Biden’s sweeping infrastructure bill, which includes $100 billion for such projects.
Congressional leaders are currently reviewing proposals to scale back portions of Biden’s $3 trillion plan, with the fate of the broadband construction funding uncertain.
By Garry Boulard