Nokia, NewCore partner to improve connectivity in rural, tribal communities

As part of the program, Nokia and NewCore will extend the next-generation private wireless to parts of North and South Dakota, Oklahoma and California. The first tranche of deployments will cover 12,000+ square miles, providing broadband to more than 15,000 tribal members.

Nokia, in partnership with NewCore Wireless, is extending the next-generation private wireless connectivity to empower rural, unserved and underserved Native American communities across the U.S.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North and South Dakota and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma are the Native American communities that will benefit from this endeavour.

"By enabling access to 4G and 5G through Nokia's technology and partnership with NewCore, each tribe can improve their quality of life with new economic opportunities, and educational and health care access," said Raghav Sahgal, President of Cloud and Network Services at Nokia.

In 2020, nearly 628,000 tribal households in the U.S. did not have access to standard broadband, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). To address this digital divide, the FCC provided the Tribal Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum that leverages the frequency band 117 megahertz (MHz).

As part of the program, Nokia and NewCore will extend the next-generation private wireless to parts of North and South Dakota, Oklahoma and California. The first tranche of deployments will cover 12,000+ square miles, providing broadband to more than 15,000 tribal members.

Nokia's wireless technologies for rural broadband connectivity including 4.9G/LTE and 5G, allow for rapid and cost-effective wireless connectivity across large areas from a single base station. Private wireless, which relies on 4.9G/LTE technology, will provide access to broadband internet and mobile phone options in areas with no or minimal coverage.

The affordable and accessible broadband connectivity will allow the remote unserved communities to make full use of the educational, telehealth and economic opportunities.

The partnership will leverage the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) platform that offers reliable high-bandwidth, low-latency wireless connectivity, local edge computing capabilities, and a catalogue with applications such as voice and video services, alongside NewCore's integration and operational capabilities.

"What we hope to bring to these communities through our work with Nokia is a renewed sense of control over their future, by building out next-generation broadband solutions to expand internet and mobile access for the most remote areas of North America," said Albert Kangas, COO and General Manager, NewCore Wireless.