Rich Hood, plant operations manager for Project Telephone said “One thing we’re really excited about, and I know that the Crow Tribe is, too, is it will bring capability to the reservation that they’ve never had before,” he also added that “The intention is that it will spur economic activity on the reservation and give everybody there access to Internet capability to allow them to do things urban people have been able to do for a long time.”
The new Internet service will enable businesses in the area to be run from home and it will provide better access to online education courses and even telemedicine services, according to Rich Hood.
Hood also added that the high speed internet service for Crow Reservation could cost more than in urban areas because of the higher cost of maintaining the network. However the exact cost for the potential customers in the area is unknown at the time.
President Barack Obama announced last week the loan-grant package for Project Telephone, which is a subsidiary of Nemont Telephone Cooperative. The grant is about $14.5 million and the remainder will be a loan from the federal Rural Utilities Service.
It is hopped that the project will also bring jobs to the Crow Reservation, which currently has a high unemployment rate. According to Hood, about 100 people could be employed during the life of the project.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ellis Witt
Quelle/Source: TauNews, 10.07.2010
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