The Osage Nation has selected a new subsidiary of Osage LLC, Osage Broadband, to operate the $54 million system it is racing to install in partnership with AtLink, the company that is already managing the existing broadband system in Grayhorse and Fairfax.
AtLink currently serves about 50 customers in Osage County and is poised to expand with coverage in Bowring and Hominy with its operating partnership with Osage Innovative Solutions, under which Osage Broadband will function. Ultimately, the system should serve more than 3,000 Native households in the Osage, in addition to an undetermined number of non-Osage homes and businesses. The company specializes in offering high-speed internet in “broadband deserts” that have no or slow internet service. Throughout Oklahoma, it provides internet service to more than 12,000 customers.
On Dec. 6-8, AtLink will have three job fairs to hire installers and customer service representatives. On Tuesday, the company will be at the Osage Casino in Ponca City, then it will be in Pawhuska at the Law Building on the Osage campus on Wednesday, followed by the Skiatook casino on Thursday. Pay starts at $18 an hour and the company offers benefits, said AtLink’s Marketing Director, Brent Greene. It also offers on-the-job training.
The broadband project is the result of the largest grant the Osage Nation has received: $40.6 million from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in August that was augmented a month later by a separate broadband grant for $13.9 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
No one in the tribe expected to get both grants and some rejiggering of plans was needed to ensure the money would be used to maximum effect. The main hurdle for the Nation is time: The entire project must be completed within two years of the date of the grant award, which means more than 100 miles of fiberoptic has to be laid and, before that, much preparatory work including engineering and archeological assessments. The service will largely be delivered by high-tech wireless radio, the most effective way of providing internet in sparsely populated areas.
Bill Fenton, the director of Information Technology for the Nation, described the job as “an ultra-marathon at a sprinter’s pace.”
Once installed, the broadband should be lightning fast compared to the sluggish speeds currently available in Osage County. Both grants require speeds of 100 megabits per second up and down; most now operate at about 25 Mbps down and 3 up.
Another requirement of the grant is that the service must be affordable. To that end, subscribers to the service can apply for credit – $30 a month on fee land and $75 a month on tribal land – through the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity program. To apply and see if you qualify, visit https://www.osagebroadband.com/ACP-Affordable-Connectivity-Program.