ReConnect Program Grants $57M for Tribal Broadband

The USDA is giving tribal communities $57 million in funding. This financing will assist with contemporary infrastructure, high-speed internet rollout, and economic development.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced broadband funding for two tribal regions under the ReConnect program.

Let’s read the news and find out more.

ReConnect Program Grants $57M for Tribal Broadband

The ReConnect Program offers financing to enable high-speed internet connectivity in America’s most isolated and challenging-to-reach rural regions.

The program aims to connect people to greater job opportunities, education, and healthcare options and to promote long-term economic growth in these communities.

A $22.3 million grant will be provided to serve 1,988 people, 12 enterprises, and 100 farms to establish an FTTP network in the Choctaw Tribal Statistical Area and socially vulnerable communities in Le Flore County, Oklahoma.

Using the grant, the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma will install a fiber-to-the-premises network to offer high-speed internet service.

A $34.7 million grant is provided to build a fiber-to-the-premises network and offer high-speed internet to 3,322 individuals, 47 companies, 55 farms, and seven educational facilities in the Pine Ridge Land Area Representation and Bennett and Oglala Lakota counties in South Dakota.

The grant will establish an FTTP network so that everyone can access high-speed internet.

In a press release, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack stated, “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is committed to Tribal economic development and removing barriers for Tribal nations.”

Vilsack added, “When we invest in modern infrastructure for people who live in Tribal communities, we create a ripple effect that impacts everyone. USDA is committed to building our economy from the middle out and bottom-up by bringing high-speed internet, clean water, and critical infrastructure to people in small towns and communities everywhere, especially in places that have been underserved for far too long.”

To be eligible for either grant, one must participate in the FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP).

Due to insufficient funding, the FCC formally announced that April will be the last full month of the ACP. If Congress does not provide more funds, the program will begin to wind down.

The USDA also reported that the administration has awarded 57 tribal communities payments totaling $1.1 billion through the ReConnect Program.

These projects aim to alleviate the lack of access to the Internet and help individuals be exposed to greater opportunities.

Many other federal organizations besides the Department of Agriculture fund tribal communities.

In September of last year, 28 tribal groups received funds totaling over $74.4 million from the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP).

The funding from various places poured in the hopes of making the lives of people better and to be exposed to greater opportunities.