News

The California Public Utilities Commission has approved an $8.6 million grant application that will bring high-speed broadband internet service to the Hoopa Valley.

"The beautiful and rural Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation has needed technological upgrades for decades," Tribal Chair Byron Nelson Jr. said in a press release. "As Chairman, I thank the CPUC for helping the Hoopa Valley Tribe achieve this goal. (The project) will allow our people to have access to increased opportunities that will have a positive benefit for all."

The project will bring broadband to the 92,000 acre reservation, California's largest, through fiber optic and wireless infrastructure that will reach nearly 1,200 unserved households and increase speeds to others. Hunter Communications, a fiberoptic services provider in Southern Oregon and Northern California, will lead the project in partnership with the Hoopa Valley Tribe and EnerTribe, a Native-owned consulting firm.

Linnea Jackson, general manager of the Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District, said the project is "years in the making."

"I am so proud to be a part of the solution to meet this long-standing critical need for our community," she said. "These (California Advanced Services) funds will have a huge impact on our tribal community, including providing students the ability to adequately access online learning, increasing employees' ability to effectively work from home, providing adequate bandwidth for online educational goals, increased access for tele-medicine, improved communications for emergency services and economic development opportunities."