The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) is expanding services across the 27,000-mile Navajo Nation in order to aid public safety and first responders on the reservation.

FirstNet is a nationwide, high-speed broadband communications platform for first responders and the extended public safety community. It is built with AT&T in a public-private partnership with FirstNet.

This expansion is part of the Navajo Nation's efforts to close the connectivity gap for residents, Chapter Houses, schools, medical centers, businesses, and housing complexes. 

By working with Comnet, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), and Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, FirstNet is constructing new sites as well as building out additional Band 14 spectrum and AT&T commercial LTE spectrum on pre-existing sites. Most towers are operational now with the final two expected to be operational by December 2022.

FirstNet’s buildout on the Navajo Nation started in 2017 and has expanded to 90 sites so far, with aims to reach around 120 by the end of the year, according to Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Office Executive Director Tico Charlee, and FirstNet Tribal Affairs Specialist Angel Benally, who spoke to SDxCentral. 

The rollout is timed to assist with The Navajo Nation Fair — the largest annual American Indian gathering — set for September in Window Rock, AZ, which will bring over 100,000 guests.

“We're hitting all of our carrier groups and getting them all geared up for it on [FirstNet],” said Charlee.

[caption id="attachment_119907" align="aligncenter" width="400"] (Tico Charlee, Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Office Executive Director; and Angel Benally, FirsNet Tribal Affairs Specialist)[/caption]

The Navajo Nation’s geography and location present a lot of challenges, according to Charlee. It crosses three states — Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

“Each state has its own regulatory type of situation we’ve got to jump through,” Charlee said. “The eastern agency itself has 20 different types of land status that we have to deal with, and those are big obstacles.”

Benally also emphasized the importance of effective engagement with tribal nations. “I'm a member of the Navajo Nation, and I live and work from Utah,” she said. "Broadband expansion is super important because when emergencies happen, we're able to connect and I think that's a common theme within tribal communities.” 

Nation residents also have to travel to border towns for resources like water, grocery stories, and — until recently — broadband connection. “You have to actually travel out of the nation,” Angel explained. “Understanding how brutal it is, I think, is important.” 

Charlee also spoke on some crucial connectivity goals for the Navajo Nation administration, including pushing for more 5G coverage. “Over half of the area on reservation’s already got 5G, so we're expanding it even further,” he said.

Another significant push has been seeking out grant funding through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), with efforts to work up to $52 million according to Charlee. They are currently “trying to connect all the dots for FirstNet and different service providers out there.”

Charlee also stressed focus on improving internet speed in Nation homes. “We want to go up into the terabytes,” he said. “And right now we do have fiber to the home [FTTH] in a lot of areas, especially up north. I think we’ve got a neighborhood [of] around 400 [people] that are FTTH right now.”

“So we're migrating everybody out of our copper and trying to push everybody into fiber,” Charlee continued. “The local responders are one of our first ones we're trying to get to in the remotest areas, trying to cover all those spots right now. So it's a big push for us right now.”

For emergencies, FirstNet users are able to access the deployable Response Operations Group (ROG) using Satellite Cells on Light Trucks (SatCOLTs). Charlee and Benally both explained the challenging terrain of the Nation’s land, and how effective these trucks have been, especially during the pandemic.

“Basically, Navajo Nation says — we have an emergency, we're responding to Covid, we’re doing vaccinations centers and testing centers. There's a need here. Can you send out a SatCOLT?” she explained. 

Benally clarified that the FirstNet expansion won’t just be newly erected service towers — utilizing SatCOLTs and other existing infrastructure helps protect sacred lands where building new towers is not possible.

“We have sacred lands all over our reservation,” she said, “So, being mindful of that is super important. And I think that really comes down to saying we're going to work with existing infrastructure that's already there.”

Charlee says these efforts to close the digital divide have made a big difference for him and other Navajo Nation directors, and to Benally — without which she wouldn’t have been able to do the internship that led to her current position. 

“In recent years, we've seen tribal nations be taken seriously, and that's so important,” she said. “That's just one of the key things that FirstNet is doing is tribal consultation and making sure that we're being seen.”