Alaska internet ‘gold rush’: Billions could be headed to rural communities to close the digital divide

A “gold rush” is on for Alaska tribes and Native corporations that are trying to capture a surge of federal infrastructure money to provide city-quality broadband service in more than 200 villages statewide. Representatives for the groups say this could be their moment to transform lives and village economies by upgrading the glitchy, slow and often unaffordable cell phone and internet service that exists across rural Alaska. “This will be life-changing,” said Kevin Hamer, general manager of Yukon Kuskokwim Delta Tribal Broadband Consortium. The group, representing several tribes, has applied for a $300 million federal grant to bring high-speed internet to 17 villages in Southwest Alaska. They’re one of several tribal groups or Alaska Native corporations that are applying for a chunk of roughly $3 billion that has been set aside for tribes nationally by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Much of that money comes from last year’s $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Some of the groups are teaming up with telecommunications companies in hopes of winning grants to extend fiber-optic cable, considered the gold standard for broadband delivery, to rural communities. Others are trying to win grants to get satellite-delivered broadband using low-earth orbiting satellites. Supporters say the service would be available more quickly in Alaska’s villages than fiber, but it’s still being tested in Alaska. Some groups say their broadband might cost less than $100 monthly, a fraction of what rural residents currently pay.