Tlingit and Haida goes on seven-city SE tour to promote planned cell towers

By Anna Laffrey

Daily Sitka Sentinel

Tidal Network, a Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska program that’s building up cell towers and broadband connectivity in Southeast communities, is holding a public outreach session at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the ANB Founders Hall. 

Sitka is the first stop for Tidal Network and CCTHITA leaders on a seven-city Southeast tour this month to give updates on plans to build broadband infrastructure and offer its own wireless home internet services. 

The base of Tidal Network's first wireless tower in Southeast Alaska is installed in Wrangell in July. (Jonathon Dawe /Wrangell Sentinel)

CCTHITA President Richard Peterson, Communications Director Dixie Hutchinson, Tidal Network Director Chris Cropley, and some local staff members will host Wednesday's meeting. As at all the tour stops, dinner and door prizes will be offered.

Cropley said the leaders will talk about “why Tlingit & Haida brought about Tidal Network, what our mission is, and how we're funded, and how we're building out infrastructure in Southeast Alaska to provide better connectivity.”

The broadband project follows a Federal Communications Commission licensing program that invited tribal governments in 2020 to apply for free 2.5 GHz spectrum licenses over tribal lands.  Tidal Network now is subleasing broadband spectrum from Southeast tribes that secured FCC licenses.

Tlingit & Haida in 2022 was awarded a $50 million federal grant to build towers and install equipment to provide wireless internet service for unserved and underserved areas across Southeast.

Earlier this year, Tidal Network applied for a variance to install a 120-foot telecommunications tower in a Nancy Court neighborhood in Sitka's R-1 zoning district, which has a height limit of 35 feet for such structures.

The city Planning Commission denied the request in April. After Tidal Network appealed the commission's decision, a judge in the Alaska Department of Administrative Hearings upheld the commission's decision denying the variance.

“We heard loud and clear from the community that they wanted more input, so we're making space for that,” Cropley said on Monday. “But we are looking at a couple different locations to build new towers.”

Cropley said Tidal Network is now looking at possible tower sites on Lake Street, and in the Benchlands zone upland of Halibut Point Road. It also is exploring the idea of building a tower on Nancy Court that would be no more than 35 feet tall.

Meanwhile, Tidal Network is installing temporary telecommunications equipment on top of Sitka Tribe of Alaska headquarters at 204 Siginaka Way, and the Cathedral Arms apartment building at 237 Lincoln Street. 

“We do have an obligation to use the (2.5 GHz) spectrum that STA and Tlingit & Haida are working with. … That is the main reason why we're moving on the temporary rooftops, because it does provide coverage to comply with the requirements of the licensing on the spectrum,” Cropley said. 

Tidal Network this summer built its first tower in Southeast Alaska, a 120-foot-tall steel tower at 3-Mile Zimovia Highway in Wrangell. Tidal home internet service is now available in Wrangell at $89.99 per month. The company says a Wi-Fi router and outdoor antenna are provided for each customer.

This fall, Tidal installed a 150-foot tower at a private, industrially zoned lot on Mill Road in Petersburg. The enterprise has plans to build two more towers in Petersburg.

In Sitka, other telecommunications providers have their sights set on expanding infrastructure.

City records from this year show that AT&T Mobility is exploring development of a new communications tower at 404 Sawmill Creek Road and Verizon is considering building new telecommunications equipment on the north side of the University of Alaska Southeast building at 1332 Seward Avenue. 

Cropley said Tidal Network towers empower the entity’s new broadband internet service, and also are meant to serve as shared infrastructure for services such as tsunami sirens, firefighter and EMS radio, VHF radio, and other cell and internet providers such as GCI and T-Mobile.

“It's a million dollars to build, at least, to build one of these (towers), and so to be able to do that and spread that cost out with shared infrastructure really helps,” Cropley said. 

He said Tidal Network internet services are available for all residents of Southeast partner communities, not just tribal citizens. 

Tidal Network also sells Starlink equipment and services to federal, tribal, state and local government entities.

Cropley said topics in Wednesday’s outreach meeting in Sitka may include local hiring by Tidal Network; public safety; exposure to radio frequency; and geotechnical engineering. Also to be discussed are how communications infrastructure may affect property values, and how Tidal Network could help ease the load on Sitka's existing telecommunications infrastructure on heavy tourism days, Cropley said. 

After visiting with people in Sitka, CCTHITA leaders plan to continue their public information tour with stops at Klawock, Craig, Kasaan, Hydaburg, Wrangell and Petersburg. All of the communities are locations where Tidal Network is working with federally-recognized tribal governments to offer wireless internet services.  

Tidal also is working with tribes in Kake, Haines and Hoonah, but the Tidal Network website says events have not yet been scheduled in those communities.

• This story originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel. Wrangell Sentinel editor Larry Persily contributed to this story.