Reznet

New cell phone tower rises above Fairfax, Okla.Osage News photo

Cell Phone Deal for Osages

By Shannon Shaw

PAWHUSKA, Okla.—Osage Nation tribal members are eligible for special discount rates with U.S. Cellular as part of a two-year agreement making it the tribe’s official cell phone service provider.

Osage tribal members, anywhere in the country, will receive a 15 percent discount on select plans by showing their certificate of degree of Indian blood, or CDIB card, to a U.S. Cellular representative. This is good news to Osage tribal members living in the Osage reservation towns of Fairfax and Grayhorse who watched the completion of a U.S. Cellular tower north of Fairfax in June.

"Before the cell tower, no one in Fairfax had any service with their cell phones," Tracey Moore, an Osage language teacher who resides in Fairfax, said. "Many of our town people gathered by the track near the high school to talk on their cell phones. I thought this was too funny, because some nights there would be around 10 to 15 cars gathered with people talking on their phones."

Ron Heron, regional construction manager for U.S. Cellular, said Fairfax had been in U.S. Cellular's plans for a tower location for several years but because of the lack of business in the area it wasn’t a top priority. With the element of adding in the Osage Nation employee base, which is 1,400, plus tribal members, it then became a top priority, he said.

U.S. Cellular sent a business consultant to the tribe to discuss an agreement which prompted other wireless contractors to bid against U.S. Cellular for the tribe's business, Brad Dailey, chief information officer for the tribe, said.

"The tribe went to Sprint, Cingular Wireless, but U.S. Cellular had the best pitch," Dailey said. "They were willing to come out here and put the cost of a tower solely on their shoulders."

In the past the tribe let each department handle their own cell phone contracts which became difficult for the tribe to manage, not to mention costly, Dailey said. Now that they have united under one cell phone provider there will never be another overage fee because they can just pool the minutes, he said. The tribe is looking into other services they can work on.

"Now we’re putting into practice efficiencies we’ve never had before," Dailey said. "It's never been under control like it is now."

Dialing 911 in emergency situations was always a concern of existing customers living in the Fairfax area, Heron said. They would receive numerous e-mails and phone calls explaining the danger they were in without having a cell tower of their own. Now that the network is up, U.S. Cellular will soon be able to pinpoint a customer's 911 call within 100 meters, he said.

The coverage area for the tower in Fairfax covers the southwest part of Osage County, the entire town of Fairfax and an area of U.S. Highway 18 between U.S. Highway 20 and U.S. Highway 60, Heron said.

Osage County residents who want to sign up for a U.S. Cellular phone can visit one of the company's offices in Skiatook or Bartlesville, or they can visit the U.S. Cellular Web site at www.uscellular.com, he said. People can also call toll free at 1-888-944-9400 to speak with someone to select a plan, and a phone will be mailed to the customer.

Making cell phone calls isn't a challenge anymore for Moore and her family and they often see U.S. Cellular tents in Fairfax signing people up on a weekly basis, she said.

"Before, my family faced many obstacles using our cell phones,"
Moore said. "I think a lot of our towns are more grateful to own a cell phone, and I feel we are adapting well into the 21st century."

This story originally was published by the tribal newspaper Osage News and is used with permission.

Shannon Shaw, Osage, is a reznet assignment editor and the communications coordinator for the Osage Nation in Pawhuska, Okla. A former reporter at the Santa Fe New Mexican, Shaw is a graduate of the American Indian Journalism Institute and the University of Oklahoma.

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