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Awards/PROJECT GRANT (B)

$43,943,116

Department of Commerce·National Telecommunications and Information Administration

to MESCALERO APACHE TELECOM INC.

telecomactive
WORK BEGAN2022-08-01·LATEST ACTION·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDASST_NON_NT22TBC0290064_013
Award description

THE PROJECT PROPOSES THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO, AND USE OF, BROADBAND SERVICES AMONG TRIBAL MEMBERS: ENGAGE IN OUTSIDE PLANT DESIGN, ENGINEERING, UNDERGROUND AND AERIAL CONSTRUCTION, SHELTER INSTALLATION, TOWER CONSTRUCTION, AND EQUIPMENT CONFIGURATION; THE PROJECT PROPOSES THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES DESIGNED TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO, AND USE OF, BROADBAND SERVICES AMONG TRIBAL MEMBERS: ENGAGE IN OUTSIDE PLANT DESIGN, ENGINEERING, UNDERGROUND AND AERIAL CONSTRUCTION, SHELTER INSTALLATION, TOWER CONSTRUCTION, AND EQUIPMENT CONFIGURATION; CONSTRUCT NEW MIDDLE MILE FIBER OPTIC TRANSPORT TO POINTS OF PRESENCE (POP) AT EL PASO, TX TO ENABLE CONNECTION TO THE TEXAS LONE STAR NETWORK; INSTALL FIXED WIRELESS FOR MOBILE APPLICATIONS TO BE USED; ADD 14 TOWERS TO THE 7 EXISTING TOWERS TO DEPLOY 2.5 GHZ SPECTRUM SERVICE, PROVIDE ACCESS TO CELLULAR SERVICES, AND INCREASE ACCESS TO FIRSTNET - A DEDICATED PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORK;

Verbatim from USAspending.gov. Capitalization, abbreviations, and codes are unchanged.

The Buildout's read

What the model surfaced from this award

Confidence: high
In plain English

Fiber optic and wireless infrastructure to expand broadband and FirstNet public safety access for Mescalero Apache tribal members.

Sub-sectors
broadband-granttribal-broadbandfirstnet
Why this matters

Addresses federal tribal digital equity priority and deploys FirstNet security-focused alternative to commercial 5G in underserved remote communities.

Supply-chain signal

$44M capital infrastructure drives demand for fiber optic cable, wireless equipment, tower construction, and network integration contractors.

U.S.–China competition angle

Builds domestic tribal broadband to reduce foreign dependencies in critical communications infrastructure and supports FirstNet as secure alternative to foreign 5G suppliers.

Generated by award_classification v2.1.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-06-12. Cost: $0.008868.

Period of performance
Start
2022-08-01
End
2027-07-31
Status
activein 383 days
Sources

The Buildout does not edit federal records. Any inaccuracy reflects the upstream source; it will update here when corrected there.

$43.9M Department of Commerce — The Buildout — The Buildout