Verizon announced plans to enhance connectivity to approximately 80 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and tribally-operated schools located on 64 Indian reservations across 23 states. Verizon's network investment across diverse tribal lands is expected to connect nearly 42,000 Native American students, leading to reliable, high-speed Internet service and connected devices for students in the impacted states. The work will support BIE's mission to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe's needs for cultural and economic well-being.

Working closely with BIE, Verizon had previously upgraded existing 100MB sites that it had developed and managed since being awarded work from BIE through the Networx contract. As part of that earlier work, Verizon transitioned more than 100 schools from T1 (1.55MB speed) to 100MB connections. On June 27, 2022, through the Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions contract program, Verizon has been awarded a task order that will allow the company to upgrade 80 of those schools to 1Gb internet connections.

With the increased speed and bandwidth this transition will provide, Native American students in the affected areas will be able to experience more robust technology in the classroom, a challenge Verizon has long been committed to addressing as part of their responsible business plan - Citizen Verizon - whose mission includes expanding digital access and resources to promote digital equity and inclusion. Verizon coordinated with multiple third-party access suppliers to design and engineer special access arrangements on a site by site basis. Students should experience the benefit of added bandwidth as early as this fall.

The overall infrastructure work across the 23 states will take place through 2023.