Southern Ute tribe lights Ignacio with high-speed internet – The Durango Herald

Long-awaited broadband infrastructure reduces digital divide, tribal chairman says

SOUTHERN UTE INDIAN RESERVATION – There were audible gasps and murmurs around the room as Justin Roller, president of Bonfire fiber, projected a screenshot of an internet speed test performed inside the home of an Ignacio resident.

The slide showed a download speed of 2,072 megabits per second and an upload speed of 2,079 Mbps – more than eight times faster than the median download speeds in major U.S. cities, according to some speed test companies.

“What the tribe is pushing us … to do is bring Front Range speeds to the reservation, so that community here has just as good of internet as anybody in the state of Colorado, and we’re now seeing that goal come to fruition,” Roller said.

Just five months ago, a small group of leaders and project managers gathered in Ignacio to break ground on a fiber-optic cable installation. And many of those same stakeholders, around 65 in all, gathered at the Sky Ute Casino on Tuesday to celebrate the “lighting” of homes and businesses in Ignacio, which are now the recipients of reliable, high-speed broadband internet.

Today, 119 addresses have been lit, of which 53 are home to tribal members. By the end of June, 691 addresses will be lit, including 123 tribal members.

“The COVID-19 pandemic hit, reemphasizing the digital divide within the reservation’s exterior boundaries,” said Melvin J. Baker, chairman of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. “The pandemic highlighted that the reservation residents lived in a digital desert.”

In collaboration with various tribal departments, partners at the federal, state and local level, as well as contractors and internet service providers, the SUIT undertook the enormous project of installing a fiber-optic cable backbone through the region.

“The activation of the new network within the boundaries of our reservation and in Ignacio is a major milestone for the project,” Baker said. “Connecting every home on the Southern Ute Reservation and in the Ignacio area will be a first for a community of our size and rural location, and something that we all can take pride in delivering.”

In 2022, Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing the Colorado Broadband Office to develop a plan to connect 99% of Colorado households to high-speed broadband by 2027.

“I was able to see these goals being accomplished before my very eyes,” said Brandy Reitter, executive director of the Colorado Broadband Office after a tour of Ignacio. “… The Southern Ute Indian Tribe, I feel, is the model for the state of Colorado.”

The tribe has secured $69.7 million in grants to fund the project.

Those grants have been used to build a backbone that runs from Three Springs down to Ignacio, where it splits east and west, and north up to Bayfield. Phase Two will involve another 300 miles of fiber-optic construction to light another 3,800 addresses.

The new network will not only connect tribal homes, businesses and services with significantly faster telecommunications, but with far superior connectivity as well. Internet speeds will start at a uniform rate of 250 megabits per second, Southern Ute Chief Information Officer Jeff Engman said.

Access to broadband internet will not only promote digital equity, but addresses long-standing safety issues in the rural area.

“You have (police) officers on their own, responding to calls, with no communication in some cases,” Engman pointed out.

The infrastructure installed by the tribe with grants that it worked hard to secure will benefit not just tribal members, but also nontribal communities and businesses.

“I just want to say thank you – thank you, on behalf of the town of Ignacio for everything you’re doing,” said Mayor Clark Craig. “This is more than just serving the reservation, a community, (or) individuals. This is going to set up the (entirety) of Southwest Colorado for generations to come.”

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