Santa Ynez Reservation connects to high-speed broadband internet for the first time

SANTA YNEZ, Cal. — Members of the Chumash Enterprises Technology Services department connected the Santa Ynez Reservation to high-speed broadband internet for the first time in July 2026.

According to the California Public Utilities Commission, when the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians set out to develop a broadband network to improve their community’s resiliency and quality of life, they faced the familiar challenge of delivering reliable, high-speed internet service across diverse, wildfire-prone terrain. 

Their solution is a tribally owned network using 10 Gigabit Symmetrical Passive Optical Network (XGS-PON).

“The obvious choice was XGS-PON,” Chumash Project Manager David Fein said. “Today it is XGS, and already they are testing to 10, 25, and even 50 gigabit PON. So that same 10 Gbps service will be able to be expanded to 25 and to 50, easily, over the next 20 years or so. This will enable our service to continue for the next few generations. This technology was the only way to fit the requirement. We had to bury the fiber, and we wanted it to be resilient, robust, and redundant.”

The milestone follows a four-year initiative known as the Chumash Fiber Project, which aims to modernize technological infrastructure across the area.

Technology Services crews established the first connections at the reservation's Learning Center and a test home. After successfully implementing the project at both locations, workers began installing equipment in residences across the reservation.

The Chumash Fiber Network spans roughly 13 miles of underground fiber through more than 1,400 acres of ranch land where tribal housing is being developed, known as Camp 4, to the original Chumash Reservation, where the network equipment data center is housed at the Chumash Casino Resort.

The network centers around an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) located at the Tribal Data Center. The OLT functions as the network's brain, managing traffic and communication with individual subscribers. From this central point, fiber optic cables extend outward through passive optical splitters that divide the light signal, and thus the available bandwidth, among multiple paths. Each customer location receives an Optical Network Terminal (ONT), a small box that converts optical signals back into electrical data that computers and other devices can process.

The new broadband infrastructure addresses long-standing challenges on the reservation, which has experienced weak and unreliable internet access in several areas over the years.

With a broadband infrastructure grant from the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) Federal Funding Account, the Santa Ynez Chumash are building a resilient, high-capacity underground fiber-optic network that will offer up to five gigabits per second (Gbps) symmetrical service to residents within Chumash Tribal Lands and benefit the surrounding population. 

The project leverages California's open-access Middle Mile Broadband Initiative (MMBI) to upgrade existing backhaul infrastructure and support the new network traffic.