Greater internet connectivity coming to reservation

 

Last updated 11/4/2020 at 9:05am



The Colville Indian Reservation will soon have more internet access.

The Colville Tribes is one of the first recipients of a spectrum license issued through the Federal Communications Commission and its Rural Tribal Window program.

“This license provides the Tribes exclusive use of wireless spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band to

connect communities on the Colville Reservation to wireless services,” a release from the tribes announced Tuesday. 

The Colville Tribes plans to implement this license by deploying wireless broadband in two phases.

Phase one, which could be finished by April of 2021, will include bringing services to communities near Keller (including the housing developments Alice Flats, Meadow Creek, Mountain Ridge and San Poil Homes), Nespelem (the town, lower and upper HUD housing and White Buffalo housing), Inchelium (the town and Butter Cup Lane), and Omak (east side Omak, Malott Housing, Lone Pine, Rocky River, Moccasin Flat, and Eagles Nest housing developments).

Phase two will expand to more remote communities in Omak (Disautel and Kartar Valley), Inchelium (Twin Lakes, Kewa, and Seylor Valley), Keller (northern and southern San Poil valley along State Highway 21), and Nespelem (Rebecca Lake, Belvedere, and McGinnis Lake).

Tribal Chairman Rodney Cawston said that “the expansion of wireless services will reach about 80% of the Reservation. It will benefit all residents, especially students and our elders. During this time of the pandemic, better wireless service is vital to serve education, health and

public safety concerns.”

An Oct. 24 press release from Congresswoman Kim Schrier, M.D. of Washington’s 8th District, where the Nisqually tribe was granted a similar license, quoted Cawston as well. 

“The declaration of the COVID-19 Pandemic has heightened the critical need of our communities and tribal members requirements for broadband access to study, to work, and to obtain critical health services in the rural and remote areas of the Colville reservation,” he said. “Without access to broadband our children do not have equal access to education and our members do not have opportunities for economic development, internet access to complete employment applications, census records, voting privileges, and communication opportunities that most of our nation take for granted.” 

That press release also explained that the licenses through the FCC provide for exclusive use of up to 117.5 megahertz of 2.5 GHz band spectrum, used through unassigned radio frequencies that require a license to use.

 

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