News
A partnership between two companies in Oklahoma has announced plans to upgrade broadband services in Osage County’s underserved and indigenous communities.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
Osage Broadband and Tarana, a creator of fixed-wireless technology, have announced the launch of an upgraded broadband network in Pawhuska and Osage County’s underserved communities.
According to a July 10 release from Trana, the community of Pawhuska has been “notoriously underserved.”
The company’s recent release hailed the deployment of their next generation fixed-wireless access (ngFWA) technology in the area as “a game changer for the day-to-day lives of residents and businesses in Osage County.”
The technology being deployed has recently been used for emergency deployments in disaster-stricken areas.
“After a tornado ripped through Barnsdall, Oklahoma in May, Osage Broadband and its tower infrastructure partner, American Tower, moved quickly to expedite a Tarana deployment to the tornado-blown town,” Tarana’s release stated. “This fast action has enabled residents, businesses, and first responders to get back online and connected to county, state, and federal emergency resources.”
Brent Greene, who serves as marketing director for AtLink, an ISP that powers Osage Broadband’s network, described the impact the deployment of Tarana’s ngFWA will have on Pawhuska.
“For years Pawhuska was lucky to pull 25/3 Mbps download/upload,” Greene said. “With Tarana’s new ngFWA technology, we’re bringing over 400 Mbps.”
According to Tarana, Pawhuska residents will now be able to engage in e-learning and telehealth thanks to the improvement.
At a June ribbon cutting event that celebrated the upgrades in Pawhuska, the Osage Nation’s Assistant Principal Chief, RJ Walker, called it a historic day for the Osage Nation and Osage County.
“With Tarana technology we’re going to be able to provide uninterrupted internet to all of Osage County, which has not happened before,” Walker said, according to Tarana’s release. “Believe me, I know.”
Tarana’s CEO, Basil Alwan, said Tarana was honored to be a part the efforts.
Alwan said Tarana was “very proud of Osage Broadband and AtLink’s progress throughout Osage Nation and other underserved communities.”
“Our mission is to accelerate the deployment of reliable, high-speed broadband,” Alwan said. “We couldn’t do that without dedicated ISP partners.”
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