Arizona

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has accepted Arizona’s Digital Equity plan. Using $1,116,110.00 from the State Digital Equity Planning Grant Program, Arizona created a plan aimed at addressing disparities in digital access, skills and affordability across the state. 

The Arizona Commerce Authority's draft Digital Equity Plan, released in January 2024, represents the culmination of a year-long, statewide collaborative effort, marked by attentive listening to the voices and feedback of communities across the state.

“We’re set up to attract, expand, and create new businesses and job opportunities while at the same time be unimpeded by government red tape and mandates,” said Sandip Bhowmick, state broadband director and vice president of infrastructure at Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA). Arizona’s broadband office is housed within the ACA, a unique government organization overseen by a public-private board of directors and chaired by the Arizona governor.

On the Hopi Reservation’s more than 1.5 million acres of desert landscape in northeast Arizona, most residents live in villages atop arid mesas. Below ground, there’s a network of copper wires that provides telephone and internet service. In 2004, Hopi Telecommunications bought the company that had installed them, but has been struggling ever since to upgrade the network to broadband speeds. Hopi Telecommunications serves both the Hopi reservation and parts of the surrounding Navajo Nation.

President Joe Biden announced over $5 billion in new investments from his Investing in America agenda—including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act—to advance rural prosperity, economic development, competition, and sustainability. $274 Million to Expand Critical Rural High-Speed Internet Infrastructure: the Department of Agriculture announced nearly $274 million across 16 grant and loan awards to expand access to high-speed internet for people living and working across eight states.