Wi-Fi Installation Covers Entire Native American Reservation

All it took was a wireless demonstration utilizing a base station configuration that provided Wi-Fi coverage over 13 miles to prompt the Coeur d'Alene tribe to install Broadband Internet access to cover the tribe's entire reservation in Idaho.

The installation of 16 high-powered Vivato base stations will provide Internet access in and around the reservation. "Having access to broadband technology will change our lives as dramatically as having horses changed our ancestors' lives," said Valerie Fast Horse in a statement. Ms. Fast Horse, who is information systems director for the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, said tribal members who don't have computers can use the tribe's Community Technology Center, which has 40 computers.

The Vivato system, which delivers 802.11g wireless to users, features phased array antennas that transmit long distances " 12 times as far as competing Wi-Fi systems, according to the firm.

The reservation covers some 345,000 acres of farm country along the western edge of the Rocky Mountains in northern Idaho.