Utah Connects a Final Frontier: Navajo Mountain High School Celebrates Landmark Fiber Milestone

Completion marks near-universal high-speed connectivity for public schools statewide, expanding access to education, telehealth, and community services.

NAVAJO MOUNTAIN, Utah — This week, Utah reached a historic milestone in the effort to bring high-speed fiber connectivity to every public school in the state, including those in its most remote region.

State, tribal, education, and community leaders gathered at Navajo Mountain High School to celebrate the completion of a critical fiber connection—one of the final projects in a major statewide initiative to ensure digital access for all Utah students.

The 10-year project extended fiber to communities throughout San Juan County, from Blanding to Montezuma Creek and Monument Valley, before reaching Navajo Mountain, one of the most remote and geographically challenging areas to connect. Previously served by a limited microwave connection, Navajo Mountain is now connected by fiber, delivering significant improvements in reliability and speed. These new connections deliver reliable, high-speed broadband not only to schools but also to surrounding communities, expanding access to educational resources, telehealth services, and library connectivity.

The project reflects extensive coordination among federal, state, tribal, and local partners. Initiated by UETN, the construction of a 200-mile fiber network was led by Emery Telcom. San Juan School District, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Utah Navajo Health System, and the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) were also contributing partners.

“It means a student here at Navajo Mountain High School can research a college application at the same speed as a student in Salt Lake City, Utah,” said Sonia Nez, Executive Director of the Navajo Nation Broadband Office. “It means a teacher can bring video lessons, virtual labs, and online resources into the classroom without watching a screen freeze or video buffer. It means a kid who wants to be an engineer, a doctor, a coder, or a teacher can actually pursue that online right here in the great community of Navajo Mountain.”

Nez went on to explain that her office, with the cooperation of state, federal, and Tribal governments, has secured funding to expand broadband access to households throughout the Navajo Nation. She thanked Emery Telcom and all the partners for getting broadband to the nation: “This new infrastructure is what makes everything else possible.”

Jeff Egly, Associate Director of IT at the Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN), noted that all the communities along the path to Navajo Mountain will benefit from this project. “That infrastructure, on its way out to Navajo Mountain, is also benefiting wireless towers, businesses, and the community along the way,” he said. “As this kind of project comes through, it helps those communities and provides a springboard with infrastructure that makes other things possible.”

Together, partners leveraged a range of programs to fund the project. Brock Johansen, CEO of Emery Telcom, said, “This project didn’t have a sole source of funding that would justify the project. It required a public-private partnership where multiple agencies, state and federal, had to put in money.” Despite the challenges, he added, “The roots of Emery Telcom are founded in serving these rural areas. The DNA of the company is that we go into these hard-to-reach areas and find a way to serve rural customers.”

Wrapping up the event, UETN Executive Director Spencer Jenkins said, “What we really strive towards at UETN is providing opportunity, whether it’s here at Navajo Mountain or somewhere more urban, when it comes to an education. Students and their educators should have the same kinds of opportunities. That’s what makes our communities thrive. That’s what makes economies develop. And in our business, technology and connection enable that.”

Leaders participating in the event included Dr. Buu Nygren, President, Navajo Nation; Dr. Derek Begay, Assistant Superintendent, San Juan School District; Anthony Torres, Special Projects Manager, Utah Navajo Health System; Sonia Nez, Executive Director, Navajo Nation Broadband Office; Brock Johansen, CEO/General Manager, Emery Telcom; and Spencer Jenkins, Executive Director, UETN.

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