UMATILLA COUNTY — Weston Mayor Jennifer Spurgeon has made her case for rural broadband to members of Congress and the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, but it was an encounter with the chief executive of a local service provider that has Weston on the verge of gaining access to high-speed internet.

Eastern Oregon Telecom President Joseph Franell said he met Spurgeon at a Hermiston Chamber of Commerce function about a year ago, a meeting that helped convince him that it was worth it to extend fiber internet to some of Oregon’s smallest incorporated towns.

Not only will Weston get high-speed broadband in the coming days, but EOT is expecting to extend fiber into Athena by the end of the year and Adams shortly thereafter.

The giants in the telecommunications industry have typically passed over smaller communities because the customer base isn’t large enough to justify the investment.

Franell said EOT is able to save money by doing all of its construction and engineering work in-house, but what really mattered, he said, was that Spurgeon and her fellow mayors in Athena and Adams were “broadband champions.”

“We tend to go where we’re wanted,” he said.

If EOT tried to expand fiber into each community individually, Franell said the investment probably would have been cost-prohibitive. But by grouping all three east county communities together — collective population 2,230 — the development made more financial sense.

While all three cities struggle with internet speed and consistency issues, Spurgeon argued that Weston had it the worst.

Spurgeon said Weston’s geography made it difficult for many households to get reliable wireless internet, while the DSL available often chugs along at 1 megabit per second. In comparison, EOT is planning to offer Weston 100 megabits per second.

At an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in September about the inaccuracies of the FCC’s broadband coverage map, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., relayed a conversation he had with Spurgeon where she called Weston’s internet “dial-up, just without the modem noise.”

Franell thought it was a fitting comparison, even as Weston’s DSL service is slightly faster than the days of America Online.

But 1 megabit is hardly compatible with modern internet speeds. Franell said even basic internet functions like email are rendered slow with those kinds of speeds considering all the pictures and graphics that now accompany them.

Spurgeon anticipated that EOT’s service would not only improve the way the city government functions, but could be a boost to some of the organizations that call Weston home, like PARC Resources, a consulting agency for rural communities.

Laura Prado, PARC’s client services manager, said whether it’s email, document sharing or video conferencing, her organization conducts a lot of its business online.

That can be a problem in Weston, especially on a deadline. Prado said she can often get faster internet speeds at her home in Milton-Freewater than in the office.

“It’s a noticeable difference,” she said.

Franell said EOT’s investment in Athena, Weston and Adams won’t end with infrastructure.

The company is planning a digital transformation program to give residents a better idea of what they can do with their strengthened internet connection.

He said the company is currently distributing a survey to get a sense of what locals use the internet for and what they want to do with it in the future.

Based on their responses, Franell said EOT could help coordinate classes on topics like e-commerce, telehealth and distance learning.

Franell said broadband could not only be used as an economic development tool to attract businesses, but also keep these small towns as viable communities.

Citing a study done by the Strategic Networks Group, Franell said 45% of households would move for broadband service, a number that jumps up to 65% for households 35 and younger.

“It’s not about convenience,” he said. “It’s about survivability.”

Internet on the reservation

Only a few miles away from Athena, Weston and Adams, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are planning their own broadband network.

Ryan DeGrofft, an economic planner for the CTUIR, said the tribes are planning the project in three phases.

The first would create a fiber loop between the CTUIR’s government facilities and tribal enterprises like Wildhorse Resort and Casino. The second phase would connect the reservation to Pendleton’s fiber infrastructure.

The final phase would see the tribes becoming its own internet service provider for residential customers living on the reservation.

DeGrofft cautioned that the plan was still in its early stages, and even if all phases came to pass, there still might be some remote parts of the reservation that might not get the service.

At this point, DeGrofft said the CTUIR is conducting a survey to get a sense of where internet speeds are across the reservation. Anecdotally, even some locations in Mission are experiencing slow and spotty internet service.

DeGrofft said the project is dependent on obtaining funding through grants and other sources, so there isn’t a definitive timeline for it yet.