Project Title:
Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program
Funding Program:
Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program
Project Purpose/Type:
This Planning, Engineering, Feasibility, and Sustainability project will enable network design and planning activities, including technical support for the development of deployment agreements with interconnection partners. These activities are necessary intermediate steps for the future deployment of the OSNI Ponca broadband network and its goal of connecting every household within the OSNI Ponca tribal lands with 1 Gbps service.
State(s):
-
$500,000.00Funding Amount
Proposed network design and engineering plans for the network are currently developed to 80% completion. OSNI Ponca will hire consultants to update the design and engineering plans for future deployment of the network. Specifically, the consultant will assist the tribe to (a) identify and assess appropriate interconnection partners and (b) develop technical scopes for agreements with those interconnection partners for future deployment of the Ponca Network, subject to future funding.
At the conclusion of the project, the OSNI Ponca Network will be designed to 90% completion, which will enable the Tribe to make strategic phased implementation decisions to prioritize deployment of broadband infrastructure to unserved tribal households. Additionally, the Tribe will have identified key interconnection partners and established relationships with those partners through various agreements addressing implementation of a Tribal broadband franchise, construction matters, joint operations, indefeasible right of use, network interconnection, and network operations. Upon completion of the grant activities, the Tribe will leverage the network design and engineering materials, as well as information developed during the deployment agreement phase, to pursue funding and begin deployment of the OSNI Ponca Network.
The beneficiaries of this project will be the 1,934 Tribal residents that are within the OSNI Ponce service area.