MISSION, Ore.-The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have been awarded a grant to expand reliable, high-speed broadband internet on the reservation.
The $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide broadband services and create an affordable rate structure to households, according to a CTUIR press release. The funding also allows for sufficient reserves to ensure the system remains updated and maintained.
The ultimate goal in expanding broadband on the reservation is to provide internet service to all CTUIR governmental operations and business enterprises as well as households.
“We are trying to provide high quality, reliable service at a very affordable price,” said Bruce Zimmerman, CTUIR Economic and Development tax administrator. “We are conscientious of making sure the prices we charge for the services are extremely affordable.”
According to the CTUIR, the USDA grant is a technical assistance grant to provide the Tribe with the information to effectively operate the broadband systems and proposal requests are expected to be released within the next few months and then contractor work would begin.
“Once we get these technical assistance studies and analyses done then we’re going to really try to roll out to the households,” said Zimmerman. “We know where we need our network system to be. It’s just a question of how of do we engineer it and design it with capacity and size to meet current and future needs.”
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is comprised of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Tribes, and formed under the Treaty of 1855 at the Walla Walla Valley.
