Tidal Network is operating in its test mode, with about a dozen Wrangell households trying out the new wireless internet service provided by the Central Council Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.
Wrangell is the first location in Southeast to get the new service, which is funded by a federal grant for construction and later will be expanded across the region.
During the testing phase, technicians will be “breaking it to fix it,” looking to maximize the signals’ range and finding the best system for managing the fiber optic and satellite services to the towers, explained Chris Cropley, Tidal Network director.
Tlingit & Haida has not yet set the customer rates for when the system opens to the general public. “The No. 1 barrier to (high-speed internet) access is price,” Cropley said. “We want to make it as affordable as we can.”
GCI’s residential internet services in Wrangell start at $90 a month; Alaska Power and Telephone’s services can be less, though at somewhat slower speeds for the lower-cost plans.
“Before we start charging people, we want to work out all the bugs,” Cropley said.
Unlike GCI and AP&T, which deliver services by fiber optic cable or wire to homes and businesses, the new Tlingit & Haida service will be wireless, similar to a cell signal. That means terrain and distance to a tower are important considerations.
Buildings and trees don’t get in the way, but hillsides do, he said.
Currently, the Tidal Network has its equipment on two towers in Wrangell, leasing space from the private owners, with plans to build its own tower next year to cover more of the town.
The testing phase has been underway about a month, Cropley said Nov. 27. The service will be free for the test households for up to six months, according to Tlingit & Haida’s invitation to find a dozen willing participants.
Signals from the two towers — one on the hillside near the community’s water reservoirs and one near Shoemaker Bay — can reach about two miles each, he said. The network has purchased property at about 3-Mile Zimovia Highway to erect its own tower, filling in the coverage gap between the two existing towers.
The equipment and tower are on order and probably will be installed in the spring, Cropley said. “It depends on how bad the winter is.”
Transmissions to and from the towers will be carried by a mix of fiber optic cables and low-orbit satellites, which the Tidal Network is adjusting to find what combination works best.
Residential and commercial customers will need an antenna to receive and transmit the wireless signal to and from the towers. It looks like “a stack of dinner plates,” Cropley said, adding that Tlingit & Haida will provide and install the units on the outside of the building as part of its services.
The sites under testing operate at 4G speeds but all new tower units will provide faster 5G signals, he said.
The launch date for the general public will depend on the testing work, but the plan is for the first half of 2025.
“We’ve learned so much from Wrangell,” Cropley said of the testing mode and towers. Tlingit & Haida has learned it is better to buy property and build its own towers than to lease space on commercial towers, he said.
The Tidal Network is “actively working” to start service in Petersburg and Sitka after Wrangell, and is trying to get started in Haines and on Prince of Wales Island.
The equipment and construction costs are covered by a $50 million federal grant in 2022 that is part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program. In total, Tidal Network plans to put up more than 20 towers in Southeast communities where internet access is labeled as underserved or unserved.
Though the wireless technology is the same as what people use for their cell phones, and people can use the Tidal Network for Wi-Fi calling with their phones, Tlingit & Haida is not in the phone business and people will still need a cell phone provider to make calls.
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