Navajo Nation bridging broadband divide with LTE

Last Friday, one of the first live long-term evolution sites went live in the US, but it wasn't in New York, San Francisco or any of the other major markets of the country. Nor was the cell site deployed by Verizon Wireless, AT&T, MetroPCS or any of the other major wireless operators. Instead the ZTE base station was switched on in Fort Defiance, Arizona, in the heart of the sprawling Navajo reservation.

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) has partnered with Commnet Wireless to address one of the starkest examples of the digital divide in the US: the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation left largely behind by the digital and broadband revolution. Building a wireline broadband network to cover 400,000 people in what is an almost entirely rural reservation the size of West Virginia would be impossible. So NTUA and Commnet have decided to tackle the problem with wireless. "The Navajo Nation has traditionally suffered from a lack of connectivity," said Monroe Keedo, IT manager for NTUA. "The Navajo Nation will benefit from this project in four big ways: economic development, education, public safety and health care."