The network started out of an unfulfilled need in the community. In the early 2000s, the Coeur
d’Alene reservation still relied on dial-up.
In 2004, the maximum speed available via dial-up on the reservation still fell short of 56 Kbps. The dial-up depended on old copper lines that had been put into the ground almost one hundred years ago, and the signal degraded quickly on that infrastructure.The Coeur d’Alene Tribe applied for a Community Connect Grant through USDA Rural Development. They received funds to build a small wireless network providing up to 1.5 Megabits per second (Mbps).
By 2010, it became evident that the demand for connectivity was more than what the wireless network could handle. There was not enough unlicensed spectrum to meet their needs, and the challenge of signal interference was increasing. At the time, the federal government enacted the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA), with billions of dollars in broadband subsidies available.
The Coeur d’Alene received ARRA funding to build a fiber network to support the
wireless network. They received about $12.2 million, half loan and half grant, through the USDA
Rural Utilities Service to build both middle-mile and Fiber-to-the-Home. The middle mile was
necessary to move the local Internet traffic off of the reservation and to the wider web.