When it’s all said and done, about 3,000 households in the Osage Nation are expected to have more reliable internet access.

Officials from the nation and the Biden-Harris Administration broke ground on over $40.6 million in broadband expansion infrastructure projects on Monday. Once the work is complete, the area will have more than 200 miles of fiber optic cabling and 16 towers for fixed Wi-Fi.

Funding for the initiative comes from a grant through the National Telecommunication Information Administration’s Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.

Principal Chief of the Osage Nation Geoffrey Standing Bear said this will benefit the nation.

“This will change our community for the better at many different levels, including education, social connection, health services, and cooperation with our community and communities throughout the world,” Standing Bear said.

The nation received money through federal government grants to build a “Fiber Optic Broadband Network” in 2022. Since then, the broadband projects have brought more jobs to the area and the nation created Wahzhazhe Connect, a new department to support the nation’s broadband infrastructure.

Tom Perez, senior adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the Office of Intergovernmental and Tribal Affairs, said the Osage Nation is one of the first tribal entities to get a grant to start broadband installation.

For Perez, the internet is like water.

“It's a critical public necessity that needs to be affordable and accessible to everyone, and that's what this grant is about,” Perez said.