Hunter to Provide High Speed Broadband Internet to Tribal Areas in Northern California

Hunter Communications (Hunter), a fiber-optic communications services provider in southern Oregon and northern California, has been awarded $8.2 million from the California Advanced Services Fund to provide high-speed broadband internet services to the Hoopa Valley Reservation, the largest in California.

The Hoopa Valley Broadband Initiative Project will be a collaboration between the Hoopa Valley Public Utilities District and EnerTribe, a Native-owned consulting firm specializing in planning, funding and building tribally chartered telecommunications infrastructure projects. Construction is scheduled to begin this month.

“The Hoopa Valley Tribe members share goals of self-sufficiency and self-determination that will depend upon affordable high-speed internet to their homes and their businesses,” said Michael Wynschenk, Hunter Communications CEO.

To serve the rural, remote, 92,000-acre Hoopa Valley Tribal Reservation in Humboldt County, Hunter will deploy hybrid fiber optic and wireless middle-mile infrastructure and a last-mile hybrid fiber and fixed wireless network to provide high-speed broadband internet service to approximately 1,198 unserved households.

The proposed project will enable fiber broadband access at speeds of at least 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 25 Mbps upload.