The Hoopa Valley Broadband Initiative Project will bring the Hoopa Tribe one step closer to reliable internet access across its rural reservation.
Fiber-optic communications services provider Hunter Communications was recently awarded more than $8 million in funds from the California Advanced Services Fund and the California Public Utilities Commission to provide high-speed broadband internet services to the tribe.
The proposed project will bring fiber-optic broadband access to approximately 1,198 unserved households across the tribe’s 92,000-acre reservation, as well as create “route diversity” to help provide a safe and reliable network in the event of hazardous weather or a wildfire.
In a phone interview on Monday morning, Linnea Jackson, general manager of Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District explained how last year’s fire season and the COVID-19 pandemic have “amplified the need for access to critical services.”
“A lot of children don’t have internet access at home and if they do it’s not adequate enough to stream classes all day,” Jackson said. “It’s really impacted our ability to distance learn and for our employees to work from home.”
In 2017, Hunter Communications was awarded grant funding to build a fiber-optic line from Trinity Valley Elementary in Willow Creek to Hoopa Valley elementary and high schools.
“We completed that build for about $1.4 million in 2017 and connected both towns to provide high-speed services for the kids in those communities,” said Carey Cahill, vice president of sales and marketing for Hunter Communications.
“Then we were able to gather some funding to network all of the tribal departments. About 50 departments contributed along with the tribal council to provide fiber optics through the department and to our medical center,” Jackson said.
The tribe was able to connect to existing fiber optics and transfer information between buildings more easily than with wireless. The Hoopa Valley Broadband Initiative Project will partner with Suddenlink to “transfer over the tribe’s microwave backhaul” to complete that system, Jackson said.
“The funding from the California Advanced Services Fund will provide a mechanism for high-speed internet to get here,” Jackson said. “As of right now, we have power lease agreements that start at Humboldt Hill at the KEET-TV tower to Horse Mountain to Sugar Pine on the reservation and then Sugar Pine hits several distribution towers within Hoopa. That’s how we’re going to provide wireless services to our community which hasn’t been there before.”
The proposed project will ultimately enable fiber broadband access at speeds of at least 100 megabits per second download and 25 megabits per second upload, Jackson said.
“It is such a rural and remote area that putting in this redundancy and having a north route as well as a south route out keeps them from being cut off in the case of an emergency which is huge for the tribe and for the community,” said Michael Wynschenk, chief executive officer for Hunter Communications.
Since the tribe and Hunter Communications have already done a fair amount of prep work, Wynschenk said he is confident the project will be completed within 12 months.
“Affordable and reliable internet access for our community will have a far-reaching effect on our people. The beautiful and rural Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation has needed technological upgrades for decades,” said Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Byron Nelson Jr. in a statement. “As chairman, I thank the (California Public Utilities Commission) for helping the Hoopa Valley Tribe achieve this goal. (California Advanced Services Fund) will allow our people to have access to increased opportunities that will have a positive benefit for all.”
Isabella Vanderheiden can be reached at 707-441-0504.