Tanana Chiefs gets $2.5 million to design broadband for four Yukon River villages, with no money to build it

Four Yukon River villages will get broadband engineering and design work under a $2.5 million federal award to Tanana Chiefs Conference. The money covers planning in Ruby, Galena, Nulato and Koyukuk. It does not pay for construction.

The award also funds a digital workforce development program in Holy Cross, with technology training, equipment and stipends for participants who complete it. Cortnie Doan, TCC legal manager and acting infrastructure director, said on the organization's weekly broadcast that the aim is to make it easier for people to reach education, employment and health care from their home communities. TCC announced the award Sept. 8.

The design work follows a backbone already under construction. A $50.6 million federal grant funded in August 2022 is laying fiber from Fairbanks to the Yukon River Bridge and on to Fort Yukon, Tanana, Beaver, Stevens Village and Rampart, a trunk line that later projects can branch off. That work has slipped. A sonar scan in summer 2025 found the Yukon below Rampart too swift for buried cable, forcing an overland reroute along the Elliott Highway, and Doyon says the completion date has moved from July 2026 to December 2027. "Because it's so expensive, village residents are having to sit outside of the school just to check their email," TCC Vice President Sharon Hildebrand said when the grant was announced.

TCC received $4.5 million in Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program Round 1 funding for a project reaching 432 households in Northway, Nenana, Eagle, Dot Lake and Tanacross, with drawings and construction both covering those five communities. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration says 250 of those households belong to tribal members. The organization's December 2024 newsletter listed $65 million from USDA ReConnect and a pending $77 million application to run fiber along the Yukon River from Tanana to Holy Cross, the stretch the four newly funded villages sit on.

TCC's 2023 broadband map already listed Ruby, Galena, Nulato and Koyukuk as candidates for fiber running to each house, in partnership with Alaska Communications.

TCC leadership met NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth this month to discuss regional broadband needs, the organization's announcement says.