Project Title:
Yurok Tribe NTIA TBCP
Funding Program:
Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program
Project Purpose/Type:
The Broadband Infrastructure Deployment project proposes to install middle fiber and last mile wireless connecting 921 unserved Native American households on the Yurok Reservation and Yurok Ancestral Lands with fixed wireless to the home with 100 Mbps/25 Mbps service.
State(s):
-
$61,661,365.50Funding Amount
The project proposes the following activities designed to improve access to, and use of, broadband services among Tribal members:
- Deploy 62 miles of middle mile fiber and last mile wireless to provide qualified broadband service.
- Increase the capacity for the Tribe to work on and maintain their own WISP infrastructure.
- Develop a training and certification program for broadband-related careers.
- Construct 7 communications towers to distribute wireless broadband to households, businesses, and community anchor institutions on Yurok Tribal Lands.
- Install wireless and LTE equipment utilizing 2.5 GHz spectrum for wireless coverage.
- Construct power line extensions to remote tower sites currently off-the-grid.
This project will:
- Provide high speed, affordable, reliable, quality broadband service to 921 unserved Tribal households, 110 Tribal businesses, and18 Tribal community anchor institutions.
- Create 182 new jobs in construction and IT-related positions.
- Connect communities, spur economic development, open-up opportunities for remote employment and online entrepreneurship, remote learning, and telehealth.
- In collaboration with the Tribe’s Employment Rights Organization (TERO), recruit 12 Tribal members to attend school and be certified to install fiber and maintain the new infrastructure. This training model will be replicated into the future.
The project intends to benefit: Tribal residents, students and educators, health care providers, employers and employees, entrepreneurs, and those that use such services as health and human services, libraries, colleges and universities, government entities such as utility districts, Boys & Girls Club, vocational education programs, and tourists visiting the Tribe’s enterprises.