Oregon Public Broadcasting

The federal government announced it has doubled its funding to expand high-speed internet lines in rural Oregon.  One place that will get an internet upgrade is the reservation of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.            

Mariah Peterson is 19. She works at the Teepee Café on the Warm Springs Reservation. The café was built by the tribe and she says it has ten computers and free wireless.

Mariah Peterson: "Its really popular. We got people coming in… right now we're getting high school students. And people who are coming in and checking e-mail and for jobs and stuff."

Jeff Anspach is the interim CEO of the Warm Springs Telecommunications Company. It's a start-up company owned by the tribes. Anspach says only two out of three households on the reservation have a phone line. And one in three has a DSL internet connection.

He says the reservation hasn't been an appealing market.

Jeff Anspach: "It's spread out and so when you want to invest in some infrastructure to provide connectivity, you're only going to pick up a couple customers there."

The federal government announced that Warm Springs Telecommunications is getting $5.5 million dollars of stimulus money. It  will have to repay about half.

The company is using the funds to build a wireless and fiber optic network that will cover the whole reservation. Singing up will cost about $100 a month. 

Anspach says that's more than many tribal families can afford. But he hopes the internet will help businesses on the reservation grow.

In total, Oregon has received about $30 million of stimulus funds to improve high-speed net access in rural areas. Projects in Lane, Benton, and Columbia County also received new grants.