Gila River Indian Community
Gila River Telecommunications Inc. (GTRI) is one of ten tribal telecoms. Established in 1988 after purchasing infrastructure from US West, GRTI offers voice and broadband services to the Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix. Since it’s establishment, GRTI has been working to upgrade and expand the infrastructure available using loans from the USDA Rural Electrification Administration (REA), now the Rural Utility Service (RUS). Their broadband service began on copper, but they are upgrading their DSL service to build a FTTH network that is now halfway complete. With the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding, GRTI accelerated the buildout of the FTTH network, and established several fixed and mobile WiFi hotspots as stop gap measures to address their community’s connectivity needs. GRTI has plans to build and grow beyond their own lands and serve as a communications carrier across the state of Arizona.
As a founding member of the The National Tribal Telecommunications Alliance (NTTA), GRTI has long lobbied the FCC on behalf of Indian Country.
Read the 2015 testimony of Stephen Roe Lewis, Governor, Gila River Indian Community Before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on promoting broadband infrastructure investments here.
Read the testimony of GRTI Chairperson Belinda Nelson at the Senate Indian Affairs committee in 2019 on spectrum needs on tribal lands here.
Read about GRTI’s connectivity challenges and response to COVID-19 here.