New cell towers being planned, constructed, going on line

PINE RIDGE - Seven weeks ago, OST president, Theresa Two Bulls signed off on a Master Lease Agreement with Alltel which in turn allowed Alltel to proceed with the continued development of new cell phone towers on Pine Ridge that will improve reception across the reservation.

A new tower in Pine Ridge Village is due to go on-line this week while bids for tower sites in Manderson and Batesland are set to go out by mid-July with an on-line date for early August. At least one additional site at Sharps Corner is being planned with others possible to improve service to residents of Pine Ridge Reservation.

Alltel's sale to Verizon was formally approved in December and certain Alltel service areas including North and South Dakota were sold to AT&T earlier this year. The most recent sale will not be official until December of this year and it will take up to 12 months to make the transition to GMS, AT&T's technology.

"We are continually looking at ways service can be improved for tribal members," said Joe Red Cloud, chairman of the OST Public Utilities Commission, "ultimately we would like to own and operate our own tribal wireless system."