Choice Broadband, the wireless broadband branch of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, has teamed up with ngFWA vendor Tarana to launch a next-generation FWA broadband network in Tohatchi, New Mexico. Tarana will provide the first of many upgraded networks that will equip residents and businesses of Navajo Nation, the largest indigenous tribe in the United States, with reliable, high-speed internet, the company said.
Overcoming Terrain Challenges
In Tohatchi, rocky terrain and significant distances between homes make trenching fiber for broadband access extremely costly. Reportedly, Choice Broadband was able to expand their coverage footprint to nearly 400 previously unreachable locations with Tarana's ngFWA.
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Accelerating Broadband Access
Though fiber was deployed along a nearby highway in 2013, the cost of fiber-to-the-home has prohibited residents from experiencing true broadband. Tarana stated that now those unserved families, along with other underserved Tohatchi residents who were limited to 9 Mbps download speeds before Tarana, can get 100 Mbps immediately — with speeds up to a gigabit coming soon.
At the ribbon-cutting event for the network launch on March 14, Choice Broadband said, "This is the first wireless broadband capable of 100+ Mbps speeds." Choice Broadband plans to launch 10 additional ngFWA-backed broadband networks in various Navajo Nation communities this year.
Formally launched in 2014, Choice Broadband provides 4G LTE fixed/mobile broadband and voice across the Navajo Nation, with 98 percent of its network being 4G.
