A Giant Leap for Internet Speeds in Isleton

    ISLETON, Calif. (Dec. 16, 2024) – This map of Isleton from the California Public Utilities Commission shows that broadband internet – download speeds of at least 25 MB per second – is essentially non-existent in this rural Delta city of 800 people.

    Last week at the Isleton Community Center, though, download speeds were clocked at over 900 MB per second.

    What changed?

    A laptop screen showing results of an internet speed test

    The results of the unWired speed test last week (Photo courtesy of unWired)

    A new technology called Tarana Wireless and a public-private partnership between Isleton and unWired Broadband spurred a giant leap in economic, educational, health, safety, and social equity for this Delta town.

    Broadband access is spotty in rural areas nationwide, and lack of access has become as detrimental to rural citizens’ opportunities as lack of electricity or phone service.

    Bridging that gap in the Delta is even more challenging than in most rural areas: The preferred infrastructure solution – burying fiber optic cable along roads – isn’t an affordable option in Delta areas with high water tables and narrow levee roads.

    Until now, that has left line-of-sight wireless as the main option, which can be problematic in heavily treed Delta communities.

    A 2019 report (PDF) produced by Valley Vision for the Delta Protection Commission noted the severity of the problem in the Delta, and recommended solutions including public-private partnerships and using existing public assets, both of which happened in Isleton.

    Tarana technology allows wireless signal to punch through trees and other obstacles, but it requires towers for transmission, and tower construction and permitting can be challenging. “The tower cannot lean or tip over, and we’re on an island that’s sinking,” said Isleton Vice Mayor David Kent, who took the lead for the City Council on the project.

    unWired was – and still is – interested in piggybacking on the city’s iconic, but currently privately owned, water tower, but was not able to get access to it. One way the city was able to help was to provide a place for a tower on city land.

    A wireless tower dangles from a crane as it is being installed

    Installation of the unWired tower in Isleton earlier this month (Photo courtesy of unWired)

    In exchange, the city gets rent and internet service for its facilities, and the option of better internet subscriptions for all its citizens.

    Mark Peterson, Special Projects for unWired, said the company was serving about a dozen customers in Isleton with existing technology, but over 200 people expressed interest in the new technology, and the company has signed up 20 more since the tower went online.

    These are small numbers compared with a service launch in an urban area, but this is the nature and challenge of rural broadband. It is also unWired’s focus. “Our mission has been to provide internet services to rural, underserved areas that couldn’t get underground high-speed providers like cable,” Peterson said.

    One Isleton couple who attended the ribbon cutting reception last week – Byron Pon and Marlene Oyoung – saw an immediate transformation in their lives.

    The retired couple bought a smart TV over a year ago, not realizing they could never get enough bandwidth to use it. They heard about unWired, signed up, and started watching all the programs they couldn’t watch on their old tube-style television, with its rabbit-ear antenna.

    Man and woman standing in front of displays on easels

    Marlene Oyoung and Byron Pon (Photo courtesy of unWired)

    So far, that includes FX’s The Old Man, lots of basketball with endless on-demand replays, and a YouTube documentary. “We certainly have watched a lot,” Pon said. “To have it available after waiting a year is terrific.”

    The better broadband also means business – including city business – can run more efficiently in Isleton, where just sending email has been routinely slow, and sometimes impossible during outages. It improves emergency response and access to remote work, telemedicine, and myriad educational opportunities.

    Vice Mayor Kent called this progress “the proverbial win-win. It should be celebrated as an idealized and practical improvement to the quality of life for the citizens of Isleton.”

    He wants it to serve as a test case for other rural communities as well. “If you can succeed here, you can succeed anywhere,” he said.

    That’s also the focus of Valley Vision, which manages a broadband consortium funded by the state Public Utilities Commission.

    “Most small cities have capacity problems,” said Valley Vision Managing Director Trish Kelly. Valley Vision works with agencies including the Delta Protection Commission to provide the advice and support needed to carry broadband projects to completion.

    “It’s a big challenge, but we’re making progress,” Kelly said. “It’s a big milestone.”

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