Next year, Wrangell will become the first community with access to Tidal Network, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska’s new broadband internet service. And thanks to a recent influx of federal funding, other communities across Southeast won’t be far behind.
On Nov. 17, the Central Council announced that it had received a $50 million grant for broadband infrastructure. The funds were awarded through the Tribal Connectivity Program, which increases access to affordable internet on tribal lands as part of the 2021 federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Tidal Network will be available to tribal and non-tribal citizens.
The latest grant money will not be headed to Wrangell because the community doesn’t need it, explained Chris Cropley, network architect for Tlingit and Haida. Wrangell is the site of Tidal Network’s pilot program, which is funded using federal pandemic aid. This program was already in the works when the Central Council received its recent federal grant.
“The good news for Wrangell is, not only are they completely funded, but if we need more money for Wrangell to buy more years of internet, we have it,” said Cropley.
Two COWs — or “cells on wheels” — have been ordered for Wrangell and are slated to arrive in mid-December, but won’t be installed until next year. “We still need a place to stand them up and we’re still in the process of purchasing property,” Cropley said of the portable cell towers.
Since cells on wheels are easy to set up, they are perfect for rural or hard-to-access areas. COWs were used to provide emergency service after Hurricane Katrina, for example.
Wrangell’s network was supposed to be fully functional in spring 2022, but supply chain and other issues delayed its implementation. “It has been hard to nail down,” Cropley wrote in an email. “Permitting and property acquisition is a moving target.” He anticipates that the network will be available sometime in 2023.
Tidal Network will offer a minimum speed of 25 megabits per second for downloading and 3 megabits per second for uploading. Though Tidal Network’s speeds may be considerably slower than broadband in urban areas or on established networks like GCI and AT&T, competition was never the program’s goal. “We’re really focused on getting people from zero to 25,” Cropley explained in an interview with the Sitka Sentinel. “At 25 (megabits), you can do video conferencing, stream high-definition videos and do everything you want to do.”
The goal is to provide “the most service to the most people for the lowest price for the longest time,” he said. The program is “working very closely with our partners at GCI and AT&T. It’s not a competitive situation, it’s a partnership.”
The median download speed for metropolitan areas in the United States was 74.6 megabits per second in 2022.
Individuals and families who already have broadband access will likely not switch to Tidal Network, Cropley acknowledged. The new network will cater to “the unserved and underserved first” by focusing on areas of the Wrangell community that have limited or no access to high-speed internet. Households at the end of Zimovia Highway may be among those to benefit the most.
The anticipated cost of Tidal Network is $75 per month for the base program. The service will be free to households at or below 200% of the poverty line through the federal Affordable Connectivity Program.
The Central Council plans to implement the network in Sitka next before working its way around Southeast. Communities with the greatest need and fewest logistical roadblocks will be connected to the Tidal Network soonest. “External factors like ‘does it take more than six months (longer) to buy land somewhere than another place,’ they’re going to get their towers sooner,” he said.
In its Nov. 17 announcement, the Central Council outlined the unique challenges of implementing broadband in Southeast, since communities and tribes are spread across 35,138 square miles of land, much of which is off the road system. “There are huge swaths of unserved territory,” the announcement read. “The region has some of the nation’s most costly broadband prices too.”
It could be six to eight years before many rural Alaskans benefit from the program, explained state Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development project manager Lisa Von Bargen in a previous interview. Communities with no preexisting high-speed internet access, like Kasaan, Thorne Bay, Whale Pass, Coffman Cove and Kupreanof will likely experience longer wait times.
“I think it’s hard for people to understand how long some of this stuff takes,” Cropley added in a previous interview. “You have to buy property, do radio engineering, get steel — it has to be American steel. Just getting (the Federal Communication Commission) to acknowledge the lease is going to take a month or two.”
Despite Tlingit and Haida’s recent broadband cash influx, the Wrangell Tidal Network pilot program remains a priority. “We’re very excited to work with the Wrangell Cooperative Association, the city of Wrangell, and the people of Wrangell,” Cropley said. “Our priorities have not changed because of this grant. If anything, it has accelerated Wrangell because we want to get it done sooner.”
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