OPB: Warm Springs Tribes to benefit from federal broadband boost
"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.""

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Warm Springs Reservation Set For High-Speed Upgrade (Oregon Public Broadcasting 8/5)