Modern broadband service, funded by federal grants, headed to Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta

A new broadband system providing high-speed internet service is in the works for one of the most rural areas of the nation, Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

The announcement was made Monday by the Bethel Native Corp., the village Native corporation located in the region’s population hub, and GCI, Alaska’s largest telecommunications company.

The new system will run fiber-optic lines undersea from Dillingham to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, then send the line overland to Bethel, the corporation and GCI announced. Ultimately, there will be two portions of the system serving Bethel and nine Yup’ik villages.

The project’s name was also announced Monday: the Airraq Network. It is named after a traditional Yup’ik game and translated to “string that tells the story,” company officials said.

“Through these grants we are going to experience better communications for traveling around the region by boat, plane, snowmachine or ATV. Subsistence and being in the wilderness is why we thrive in the Y-K Delta and stronger communication service will undoubtedly make life safer,” said Ana Hoffman, president of the Bethel Native Corp., at a Monday event held at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage.

There will be more opportunities for telehealth, online learning, online commerce and “limitless entertainment and downloading galore,” Hoffman said. “The changes we are going to experience are foundational and will impact generations to come. Airraq is an investment with long-term benefits.”

The $42 million for the Bethel-area portion of the network, to be built by the Bethel Native Corp., comes from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. That portion of the system will connect Bethel to Platinum, Eek, Napaskiak and Oscarville, company officials said.

The $31 million for the fiber connection to the five other villages — Atmautluak, Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk, Quinhagak and Tuntutuliak – is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service ReConnect program.

Both programs were among the recipients of funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law last year. The Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program received $1 billion from the infrastructure act, and the ReConnect program received about $2 billion.

At Monday’s announcement, Alan Davidson, assistant U.S. secretary of commerce and the administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the grants awarded to the Yukon-Kuskokwim project represent a larger movement. They are part of a commitment “to connect everyone in America with high-speed, affordable, reliable internet service,” Davidson said by teleconference.

“Generations before us brought water and electricity to rural parts of this country. This is our generation’s big infrastructure moment,” he said.

The grants were awarded to the Yukon-Kuskokwi