[1st-mile-nm] Navajos get $33M stimulus for broadband

[Marianne Granoff]

FYI.

> 
>http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2010/03/22/daily36.html?ed=2010-03-25&ana=e_du_pub
>
>Thursday, March 25, 2010, 1:20pm MDT
>
>Navajos get $33M stimulus for broadband
>
>New Mexico Business Weekly - by Kevin Robinson-Avila NMBW Staff
>
>The Navajo Nation will receive a $33 million stimulus grant for 
>broadband development on reservation land in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
>
>The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which applied for the funding 
>under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will kick in $14 
>million in matching funds, said U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke 
>in a telephone conference with reporters on March 25.
>
>"This grant will create new economic and educational opportunities 
>for the Navajo tribe throughout the West," Locke said. "The Navajo 
>Nation has been stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide. The 
>grant will provide broadband infrastructure in a place where the 
>private sector has been unwilling or unable to invest."
>
>At least 60 percent of tribal members on the reservation lack 
>telephone service, Locke said.
>
>The grant and matching funds will finance 550 miles of fiber optic 
>cable. It also will pay for 59 new microwave towers, extending 
>wireless broadband service to a 15,000-square-mile area in all three states.
>
>The project will connect 30,000 households, 1,000 businesses and 
>1,100 community anchor institutions, such as Navajo chapter houses, Locke said.
>
>"Broadband is essential for the health and wealth of the Navajo 
>Nation," he said. "The grant will enable educational and 
>telemedicine services. It will pay dividends for decades to come by 
>connecting business owners with wider access to national, and even 
>international, markets."
>
>Although the secretary offered no estimates on job creation or 
>retention, which are basic goals of stimulus funding, he said the 
>grant would create many jobs for people who work to lay fiber and 
>construct the microwave towers. That's particularly important on the 
>Navajo Nation, where unemployment rates have chronically hovered in 
>the 40 to 50 percent range in many communities, Locke said.
>
>U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, said the grant announcement is great 
>news for New Mexico and the other two states.
>
>"It meets a real need," Bingaman said. "Many Navajo residents lack 
>basic telephone service, and some even electricity. This will 
>dramatically improve the situation for many people."
>
>U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, said the project can help address a 
>chronic lack of economic development opportunities on the reservation.
>
>"Many people there are living in third-world conditions," Udall 
>said. "The grant can help change those circumstances by bringing 
>cutting-edge technology to provide more economic and business 
>development, and to improve educational opportunities and telehealth services."
>
>krobinson-avila at bizjournals.com | 505.348.8302
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/1st-mile-nm/attachments/20100325/ea483278/attachment.html>