A pair of rural counties in eastern Arizona could soon start seeing significant investments in fiber and broadband networks — part of a multi-state settlement with two national telecommunications companies.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that Frontier and Verizon have agreed to spend $8 million across Navajo and Apache counties — home to some of the state’s biggest landbase tribes.
In a 5-0 decision, the Arizona Corporation Commission unanimously approved the settlement on Sept. 17.
“I’m never, ever going to stop bird-dogging this for these two counties, because they deserve better,” Mayes told KJZZ. “Just because you live in a rural county doesn’t mean that these telecommunications companies can treat you differently.”
For context, tribal lands make up two-thirds of Navajo County, while Apache County has about 70% — containing swaths of the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni and White Mountain Apache reservations. Latest census data shows that more than half of all residents between both counties are Indigenous.
The Federal Communications Commission reported in 2020 that almost a fifth of those living on tribal lands nationwide lacked broadband access compared to 4% residing off reservation.
Mayes recalled hearing “absolutely insane” stories involving residents having to send messages over social media to simply ask for emergency services, adding “if people in Phoenix were having to call the Phoenix Police Department over Facebook, the problem would have been solved long ago.”
Holbrook and Snowflake will receive $2 million to improve fiber network reliability, while another $2 million is meant for St. Johns, Concho, Springville and Vernon to bolster connections; Show Low is supposed to benefit from both.
The remaining $4 million is being earmarked to hook up homes and businesses to high-speed fiber, with the Attorney General’s office explaining this “holistic approach” aims to “help connect Native communities across northern Arizona.”
Part of this tentative settlement also requires service providers to find and fix the root causes of regular 911 outages — on top of conducting a network-wide audit. It must first be approved by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge and the Arizona Corporation Commission.
While Verizon has been readying to buy Frontier in a $20 billion deal recently approved by the FCC, Mayes insisted “they have all the resources in the world to make these fixes” and she’ll “take them back to court” if such improvements aren’t made.
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