Biden Administration Tour, NTIA Funding Internet for Two Tribal Nations, Ting Partnership in California

March 27, 2023 – President Joe Biden and cabinet members will begin an “Investing in America” tour on Tuesday in Durham, North Carolina, which will highlight the president’s agenda for items including the CHIPS and Science Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the American Rescue Plan Act, according to a White House brief on Friday.

Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo will travel to North Carolina to visit manufacturers producing fiber optic cable, while Biden will visit Wolfspeed in Durham, North Carolina, a semiconductor manufacturer, which recently announced a $5 billion investment to build the facility and create 1,800 new jobs in the state.

The new laws are “unleashing a manufacturing boom, helping rebuild our infrastructure and bring back supply chains, lowering costs for hardworking families, and creating jobs that don’t require a four-year degree across the country,” according to the brief.

Before the president starts the tour, the White House “will hold a cabinet meeting on Monday, where members from across the administration will come together to discuss how their agencies are working together to implement the president’s agenda to expand economic opportunities across the country,” the brief added.

In Biden’s the State of the Union address in February, he emphasized the importance of ”made in America” rules, especially for fiber optic cables.

NTIA announces $25.7 million to fund two tribal nations

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced Thursday it has awarded two grants totaling more than $25.7 million to two tribal nations for internet and broadband, according to a press release.

As part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota will receive $11.4 million fund and the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico will receive $14. 3 million.

“Tribal communities often face high barriers to Internet adoption that hinder their ability to thrive in the modern digital economy,” said NTIA head Alan Davidson in the release. “Today’s grants to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the Pueblo of Acoma will reduce these barriers for more than 1,500 Tribal households, connecting them to economic and educational opportunities that many of us take for granted.”

The Federal Communications Commission partnered with the Institute of Museum and Library Services last February to raise awareness about the agency’s E-Rate subsidy program, which is federal program used to supply libraries with funding for internet infrastructure and has come under fire for a lack of expansion to tribal communities.

Ting partners to bring fiber to California, Arizona areas

Fiber internet provider Ting, a division of Tucows, announced on Thursday it will partnership with Ubiquity, a company that invests and manage digital communications infrastructure, to bring fiber internet to Carlsbad, California and Mesa, Arizona, according to a Tucows press release.

“Our partnership with Ubiquity allows us to connect more residents and businesses to fiber, faster, while being efficient with construction resources,” said Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows and Ting, in the release. “We’re excited to work with a team that shares our vision of what future-proofed communities can look like now, and into the future.”

Ubiquity began construction of the network in early 2023 in both Carlsbad, California and Mesa, Arizona. The tenant partnership between these two internet companies “is expected to result in up to 150,000 available fiber addresses across both markets over the build term”, according to the Tucows’s release.

The companies also partnered in 2019 to build in the markets of Solana Beach and Encinitas of Southern California.