The Challenge
The Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments (CATG) serves Gwich’in and Upper Koyukon communities across Alaska’s Yukon Flats, operating essential healthcare, natural resources, education, and cultural preservation programs. As the primary emergency medical provider for villages accessible mainly by small aircraft, CATG coordinates care across four clinic locations where reliable connectivity is literally a matter of life and death.
For years, CATG faced critical operational constraints:
- Dependence on distant telecommunications vendors who couldn’t respond quickly when clinical systems failed
- No meaningful control over infrastructure: they couldn’t switch providers, configure systems, or make changes independently
- High-latency satellite connections that undermined modern healthcare workflows
- Lack of backup systems for irreplaceable cultural materials including language recordings and traditional knowledge
When systems failed, CATG waited days or weeks for vendor technicians who had to travel to remote villages. In healthcare, those delays can be catastrophic.
My Role
I led the design and deployment of a sovereign network infrastructure that gave CATG full ownership and control of their digital systems. This project exemplifies the Vicinity Team’s mission: enabling organizations to achieve digital self-determination.
Phase One: Foundation Building
Before addressing connectivity, we secured what CATG already had:
- Comprehensive backup and disaster recovery protecting clinical data and irreplaceable cultural materials
- Modern server infrastructure owned by CATG, not leased from vendors
- Facility assessments for planned upgrades leveraging Indian Health Service grants
Phase Two: Sovereign Network Design
We designed and implemented infrastructure that CATG owns completely:
- LAN infrastructure at each facility with enterprise-grade switching and wireless
- WAN connectivity using LEO satellite services (Starlink) with automatic failover
- WLAN coverage extending connectivity throughout facilities
- Management systems enabling CATG staff to monitor and manage their own network
The key architectural principle: vendor flexibility rather than lock-in. CATG can now evaluate and change broadband providers as better options emerge, including future fiber optic projects in the region.
Technical Implementation
LEO Satellite Deployment
Low Earth Orbit satellite services transformed what’s possible in remote Alaska:
- Dramatically lower latency compared to traditional geostationary satellite
- Higher throughput enabling modern applications
- Multiple terminals providing redundancy
- Simplified installation compared to VSAT systems
Network Architecture
The network was designed for reliability and manageability:
- Enterprise switching with redundancy at each location
- Standardized configurations enabling consistent management
- Remote monitoring allowing proactive issue identification
- Secure management access for remote troubleshooting
Data Protection
Protecting irreplaceable data was paramount:
- Automated backup of clinical and administrative systems
- Cultural archive protection for language recordings and traditional knowledge
- Offsite replication ensuring disaster recovery capability
- Encryption protecting data at rest and in transit
Results
The transformation has been dramatic:
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Bandwidth | Baseline | 10x increase |
| Monthly cost | Baseline | ~50% reduction |
| Support response | Days/Weeks | Minutes/Hours |
| Infrastructure ownership | Vendor-controlled | CATG-owned |
As CATG Executive Director Dorothea Adams stated: “It’s the best decision this administration has made, to use Vicinity.”
Broader Impact
This project demonstrates a replicable model for tribal nations and rural healthcare providers seeking technological independence. The principles apply anywhere organizations are constrained by vendor dependency:
- Assess and protect existing data and systems
- Design for ownership not rental
- Build vendor flexibility into architecture
- Enable local management capability
- Plan for evolution as technology improves
The sovereign network approach recognizes that technology infrastructure is as critical as roads, utilities, and buildings. Organizations that depend on vendors for their digital foundation are vulnerable. Those that own their infrastructure can chart their own course.
A detailed case study of this project is available at Vicinity Team.