Verizon will bring up to 1-Gig connectivity to 80 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and tribally-operated schools on 64 Indian reservations across 13 states. The upgrade to 1-Gig is expected to benefit thousands of Native American students.
Verizon said that it previously upgraded more than 100 schools from legacy T1.5 lines to 100 MB connections, as part of its U.S. General Services Administration's Networx contract. With this latest contract, Verizon said that many of those sites will now get access to 1-Gig service. This most recent upgrade is part of a contract that Verizon was awarded through an extension to its Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions order. A Verizon spokesman said that this contract is valued at $147 million.
Verizon said that it is coordinating with many third-party access suppliers to design and engineer the upgrades on a site-by-site basis. The company added that these upgrades will assist its Citizen Verizon program, which is dedicated to providing digital literacy training for parents, remote learning resources for teachers, content for under-resourced youth, and tech guidance for school districts. The program’s goal is to provide 10 million children with digital access and skills training by 2030.
The upgrades will start immediately with some schools receiving the 1-Gig services as early as this fall. However, Verizon said that the overall infrastructure work across all 13 states will take place through 2023.