The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion (OBAE) has announced over $900 million in investments towards broadband infrastructure, with the help of both federal and state support.
Among the 17 projects announced, the Navajo Nation was awarded $111 million. That’s the largest single supported project from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program (BEAD).
Sonia Nez manages the Navajo Nation Broadband Office. She said the project will affect 11,000 households across New Mexico’s portion of the Navajo Nation. She also said an effort to bring broadband to the community like this has never been done before.
“Telehealth, education across the whole spectrum, lifts the people up to a new level where there was no connectivity before, but now they will have connectivity at the home, and so just opens the whole door of opportunity for the people, businesses, entrepreneurship, education, across the whole spectrum,” she said.
Nez said tribal members continue to face challenges without broadband.
“So without internet connection, for example, to get a college education, you have to go off the reservation, you have to go to the cities, you know,” she said. “So this will give them opportunity to have school right there at home and not have to leave the Nation.”
Nez said the BEAD program will help more homes have broadband service. She also said the Navajo Nation is working to establish broadband in all chapter houses and install 5G towers for mobile internet.
She said they hope to start the projects in the latter half of this year.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
