Oki Communications, LLC

Glacier Peaks StarLink Cable Heritage Center    Blackfeet Coins Oki Communications Siyeh Home Tribal wireless service increases competition                              BACK Karen Ogden, Great Falls Tribune, January 27, 2007 A new tribally owned wireless company is bringing competition to the Internet business on the Blackfeet Reservation. Oki Communications opened in late November and now has 80 customers — plus a waiting list of at least 30. "We're very excited about it," said Jerry Beeks of CommunityTel, a holding company of the Ronan Telephone Co., which is partnering with the tribe on the venture. "We're pleased that the demand is there." Oki means "warm greeting" in the Piegan, or Blackfeet, language. The company is a Montana limited liability company owned jointly by CommunityTel, with 49 percent, and the Siyeh Corp., the Blackfeet Tribe's economic development arm. "A lot of (Oki customers) wanted to go with something local," said Oki Manager Paul Augare. Fairfield-based 3 Rivers Communications, which serves more than 3,000 telephone customers on the reservation, also is its biggest Internet provider. Oki's local ownership means that rural service subsidies will be spent on improving Internet service and infrastructure only on the reservation, said Siyeh board member Virgil Edwards. "I think it's a good service," Edwards said. "It's lower cost for the people here." Basic Internet service with Oki starts at $29.95 a month. A deluxe package is $44.95. 3 Rivers offers high-speed DSL broadband service for $49.95 a month, while dial-up service starts at $21.95 a month. 3 Rivers Communications welcomes the competition, said spokesman Don Serido. "It's really better for everybody in the long run," Serido said. "But we do feel we have competitive products and it doesn't always come down to price. It comes down to the quality of service, and I think we compete really well on that." Oki's technology is a cable modem system similar to Bresnan's high-speed cable Internet service. However, it uses a radio transmitter, instead of a cable, to reach customers. An antenna is mounted on the customer's home, which receives signals from a main antenna mounted on the Browning water tower. The service reaches up to 16 miles outside Browning, depending on the terrain, Augare said. The signal is sent over what were TV channels 54 and 59. The Ronan Telephone Co. acquired the channel spectrums as part of the Federal Communications Commission's digital TV transition, which is reallocating TV channels above 50 for other communications purposes. In 2002, RTC outbid a consortium of the 3 Rivers and Blackfoot telephone cooperatives for the spectrum license for the Lincoln region, which includes Glacier, Pondera, Teton, Lincoln and Flathead counties. RTC obtained the license at a steep discount under an incentive credit program through the FCC's Indian Telecommunication Initiative. On the Blackfeet Reservation, RTC traded the tribe the license for the credit. The Blackfeet Reservation qualified the region for the credit because, at the time of the 1990 Census, telephone service penetration was at less than 70 percent. Siyeh has the option to eventually buy out CommunityTel. "There are tribes in the United States that own and operate their own telephone companies for the reservations," Edwards said. For now, CommunityTel is providing logistical support and, along with Siyeh, capital for the new company. RTC President Jay Preston is his family's third generation in the telecommunications business in Montana. In the mid-1930s, his grandfather bought the Hot Springs Telephone Co. in Hot Springs, Mont. His grandmother operated the manual switchboard 24 hours a day. The family bought the Ronan Telephone Co. in 1960. "Now (in addition to phone service) we're providing Internet," Preston said of the fast-changing telecommunications world. "We've got 1,000 DSL customers in Ronan." Oki Communications can be reached at 406-338-3222 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. BACK Siyeh || Glacier Peaks || StarLink Cable || Blackfeet Heritage Center || Blackfeet Coins Oki Communications || About Siyeh || Honoring Nations || Contact Siyeh Blackfeet Links || Glacier Links || Montana Links || Projects || Wind Energy || Privacy © 2004-2010 Siyeh Corporation, Blackfeet Nation, Browning, Montana.   Design by CCC.