Volunteers Help to Hack Comms Solutions for the McKenzie Valley

Oregon Internet Response (OIR) has been busy over the past weeks developing and operating the Upper McKenzie Emergency Wireless Internet Network (UM-EWIN).

While details seem faint, estimates are that it will take around 3 Months providers such as Centurylink and Spectrum to restore normal services to the area.

So the OIR’s goal is to step into that gap and provide critical Internet connectivity to businesses and the public while they await their licensed and franchised telecommunication carriers/cable providers to repair their infrastructure.

The volunteer group secured tower permits from EWB and USFS, and worked to identify paths that could bring new internet backhauls into the McKenzie Bridge area. These backhaul solutions complement and can directly support other solutions on the ground.   One major success milestone on the broader Internet challenges is that the team has secured Internet at Hoodoo (400mbps).

Broadband Internet service has been delivered to the USFS ranger station and EWEB, as well as a high-speed microwave radio backbone at Hoodoo-Smith-Belknap tower sites and a series of free Wi-Fi hotspots in public areas such as the McKenzie High School which is also the site for the Blue River Community Relief Center.

The cell carrier (Verizon, Tmobile, ATT) solutions will do a lot of good especially for voice services, and are likely back-hauled by satellite connections, which does have some limitations. The solutions that are currently being envisioned from the ad-hoc team, will be formed on terrestrial towers (across multiple towers) and then finally backhauled by fiber. These services will complement each other.

Additional partners have joined this ad-hoc team including EWEB (communications group), Emerald Broadband, and Michael Harman from Lane County Gov. There are also a number of private-sector telecommunications companies that have offered resources both in terms of capital and equipment.

It really is inspiring to see everyone coming together, contributing their skills, and collaborating to provide crucial communication solutions for the valley.

The running thank-you list below gives you some idea of what a huge collaborative effort this has been:

• Takoda’s for their hospitality (and tasty pizza!)
• EWEB for their support in developing a new wireless path to the McKenzie Valley
• USFS for their partnership in fast tracking temporary use permits
• USFS Forestry Engineer/Scientist Sarah who climbed a 125’ Doug Fir tree on a Sunday
• Cambium for their donation of equipment
• IOIOBox.co for their donation of equipment
• Brent Caulley, Upper McKenzie Fire Fighter, for guiding OIR to the top of Castle Rock Bend Broadband for donating bandwidth
• Elevate Technology Group for donating equipment
• Emerald Broadband for donating equipment
• Lane Electric for fast tracking joint-use pole attachments
• WiLine for providing certified tower climbers
• Randy Neals for donating equipment
• Matt Sayre for donating equipment
• And thank you to the many unnamed individual OIR volunteers who have donated hundreds of hours to this effort!