Since its inception in 2021, the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) has awarded more than $1.78 billion to help 191 tribal governments, other tribal organizations, and colleges bridge the digital divide with high-speed tribal internet services. Now, the NTIA is preparing to award new construction grants totaling over $900 million in a second round of funding for tribal broadband.
This second round presents a great opportunity for network operators to truly provide improved broadband internet services, especially in areas where connectivity has been subpar.
If you’re awaiting funding approval for your application, you’ll already have some key project aspects in process, such as budgeting/estimating, technology evaluation, high-level network design, and deployment site locations. But once funds are received, that’s where the rubber really hits the road.
The tips in this blog will help you continue progressing your broadband infrastructure project while awaiting approval—as well as hit the ground running when you’re ready to move forward in earnest.
Pro tips for providing better tribal internet connectivity
For any major infrastructure project, it’s critical to share information proactively throughout your organization, especially with project stakeholders. Use a mix of internal communications, external community outreach and updates, and direct engagement with decision-makers within your community. Keeping stakeholder communication consistent and clear prevents misunderstandings as you move forward with the project. Good communication also helps build excitement about the new broadband infrastructure.
To facilitate effective communication, an important first step is to develop and maintain a project plan that can be referenced by all interested parties. Here are some key factors to consider in the planning phase, as well as several overall best practice guidelines for later phases. You will already have begun working towards some of these phases while preparing your application, and now is the time to flesh out details and get ready to execute on the project:
Planning
- Conduct outreach to let your tribal council and community know that you’ve applied for Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program grant funding, and the estimated timing for receiving funds. Be sure all stakeholders are informed about what to expect, and hold events to encourage sign-ups and answer questions.
- Identify the skill areas and needed training for deployment and operational aspects of the project. Skills typically include project management, engineering, technology, construction, maintenance, operations, and marketing. It’s valuable to choose the right partners that can provide knowledge transfer as the project advances.
- Determine how your broadband infrastructure project will be implemented. This vital decision essentially comes down to a choice between piecemeal or turnkey. Timely completion is also extremely important, since you must finish the project within four years once the grant is awarded.
- With a piecemeal project, multiple parties each carry out specific aspects of the broadband deployment. This type of approach requires strong project management expertise within your organization.
- With a turnkey model, on the other hand, most or all the project management and project tasks are outsourced to a third-party firm. The scope typically includes design, build, operations, and management phases, operating on behalf of the Tribal nation. For this approach, be sure to choose the right experienced partner to manage all project deliverables and multiple vendors, with the following expertise:
- History of successful deployments
- Financially stable
- Purchasing power
- Design expertise in fixed wireless and fiber-to-the-premises networks
- Ability to finish their tasks within budget and on time.
Design
- Designing a network, requires expertise in both outside plant – network infrastructure outside the customer’s home or business – and inside plant – equipment located inside buildings. It’s important to design both at the same time for maximum cost-efficiency as well as to maximize the long-term success and future-proofing of the broadband infrastructure.
- Selecting the right mix of network equipment is another major decision point that will impact the complexity of deploying and operating tribal internet over the long term. The right choice of equipment is crucial in ensuring the network is ready for new applications and technology upgrades, as well as for future expansion.
Network build & site construction
- Managing construction risk and probable cost increases is especially important since it enables you to anticipate issues that may cause extra expense and delay. Be sure to factor costly and likely risk scenarios into your plans. For example, drilling rocky terrain is an expensive additional cost if encountered during underground construction. Planning contingencies to allow for this possibility can help you to manage that situation effectively should it arise.
- Quality assurance and quality control are vital throughout the project, especially the ongoing management and monitoring of vendors such as your construction partner.
- Keeping careful, consistent records is critical, and progress should be periodically assessed against the design and engineering plans. This allows for checks to be made throughout the build, and helps create a clear, up-to-date record of infrastructure that the operations team will rely on for the life of the network.
- Materials and equipment are a critical decision when supplying your broadband project. Availability of materials, as well as the storage and logistical flow of those materials, is critical to understand. Having too few materials on hand can lead to delays, while having too much material can lead to storage and warehouse issues if sufficient space is not available.
Operations & maintenance
- Operations staffing can be done in various ways, including full-time, part-time and partner-augmented approaches. Scaling your headcount and capabilities should be based on a direct understanding of subscriber revenue. You’ll need to implement a sound change management process to consistently keep up with network upgrades and revisions. There are flexible options available to enable smooth transfer of operating responsibilities from an experienced third-party to your organization, once internal staff are fully trained.
Determining Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and repair contracts is key to achieving a good quality of experience for your network customers. This includes deciding how soon outages should be resolved and how quickly critical equipment repair should be completed. Likewise, it’s vital to maintain contingency funds for physical infrastructure repair events, such as a fiber being cut by other companies while digging, an automobile hitting an electric pole, or inclement weather. These events can be hard to predict, but having funds on hand helps cover potentially costly fiber repairs.
Bridging the digital divide with tribal internet
At Fujitsu, we have decades of experience in the planning and delivery of community broadband access. We work closely with all the relevant stakeholders on a project to assist with upfront feasibility studies, planning, business modeling, engineering design and overall project management. As a true partner you can trust, we help reduce your risk and stress level, whether you’re new to broadband or expanding an existing network.
