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FYI.<br><br>
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<a href="http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2010/03/22/daily36.html?ed=2010-03-25&ana=e_du_pub" eudora="autourl">
http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2010/03/22/daily36.html?ed=2010-03-25&ana=e_du_pub</a>
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Thursday, March 25, 2010, 1:20pm MDT<br><br>
<b>Navajos get $33M stimulus for broadband</b><br><br>
New Mexico Business Weekly - by Kevin Robinson-Avila NMBW Staff<br><br>
The Navajo Nation will receive a $33 million stimulus grant for broadband
development on reservation land in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.<br><br>
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.<br>
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“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.”<br><br>
At least 60 percent of tribal members on the reservation lack telephone
service, Locke said.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
The project will connect 30,000 households, 1,000 businesses and 1,100
community anchor institutions, such as Navajo chapter houses, Locke
said.<br><br>
“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.”<br><br>
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.<br><br>
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, said the grant announcement is great news
for New Mexico and the other two states.<br><br>
“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.”<br><br>
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM, said the project can help address a chronic
lack of economic development opportunities on the reservation.<br><br>
“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.”<br><br>
krobinson-avila@bizjournals.com | 505.348.8302</blockquote></body>
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