New Mexico broadband grants to lead to first connections for Fort Sill Apache

Tribal land in southwestern New Mexico could soon get its first broadband connections. The Fort Sill Chiricahua-Warm Springs-Apache Tribe near Akela in Luna County is in line for fiber broadband infrastructure following two $100,000 state broadband planning grants awarded by the state’s broadband office through its Grant Writing, Engineering, and Planning Program. Fort Sill, headquartered in Apache, Oklahoma, currently operates a convenience store and owns about 1,910 acres of an expanded area in Luna County. There are no homes there yet, and leaders hope to return to their homeland to develop a community, including fiber broadband infrastructure. Fort Sill will use the latest GWEP planning grant to finalize preparations to complete a design package for high-speed broadband infrastructure across the back half of the Tribe’s expanded area in the county. The proposed project will deliver engineering blueprints needed to deploy reliable internet to the unserved land. Specific deliverables include:

• Detailed plans for optimal fiber placement
• Capacity modeling to support industrial-scale data needs
• Rights-of-way crossing
• Railroad-related permits
• Integration around ponds to protect wastewater systems while controlling erosion