This year’s Governor’s Native American Summit was held at Utah Valley University in Orem last week. Tara Thue, Manager of the Utah Broadband Project, and Chris Conabee, Managing Director of Corporate Recruitment and Incentives for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) were invited to give presentations on rural economic development.
Thue’s presentation focused on educating participants on broadband availability on tribal lands. The Project Team recently created maps for each of Utah’s tribal areas at two levels of service, basic broadband service (speeds of at least 3 Mbps download and 768 Kbps upload), and broadband service supporting home office/education needs (speeds of at least 10 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload). She also encouraged the tribes to participate in the Utah Broadband Advisory Council and the Project’s Regional Broadband Planning Councils, which were recently formed to address broadband planning on a local level.
Conabee’s presentation focused on informing the tribes of initiatives and programs within GOED that drive economic development in local communities. He gave an overview of the Governors’ Rural Partnership Board, the Rural Fast Track incentive program, Enterprise Zones and GOED’s Targeted Economic Clusters and encouraged tribes to participate in these efforts and learn about the resources available to them.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Update: The FCC will be holding a Native Broadband Telecommunications and Media Consultation Workshop on September 25-26 at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Click here for more information.