CHEROKEE - Brandon Spears sees the future edging closer for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee.

With a new high-speed connection to the Internet and the outside world, the tribal planner foresees the possibilities of videoconferencing or even telemedicine, linking the residents of remote communities such as Snowbird or Big Cove on the reservation with the best medical specialists.

"Our whole hope is that we can enhance government services and attract environmentally friendly businesses," Spears said.

That connection is coming closer with the announcement of a BalsamWest FiberNET, a new private-public partnership building a 170-mile fiber-optic network through Jackson, Macon, Swain, Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties.

Southwestern Community College and Drake Enterprises, the parent company of Dnet Internet Services, will build the network to link the far western counties with the fastest access to the Internet. Their network will in turn hook up to the MetaPoP, or new Internet hub the Education and Research Consortium has opened in the federal building in Asheville.

"Western North Carolina has much to offer high-tech companies but will be overlooked unless it has access to this type of high-speed network at prices comparable to metropolitan areas and a highly trained labor force," said David Hubbs, director of Internet services for Drake Enterprises and manager of Dnet.

Hubbs said by the end of the decade, nine out of 10 jobs will require the use of computing and communication technologies.

"Our region must have adequate infrastructure in order to be part of the 21st-century economy," he said. "Without it, our region will not be able to compete."

Hubbs said the first segments of the network should be completed in the next month or so, linking Southwestern Community College to Drake's headquarters in downtown Franklin.

"Realistically, the entire project could take a year," said Laura Pennington of Southwestern Community College and a spokeswoman for BalsamWest. Depending on current negotiations, the final price for the network should range from $6.5 million to $9 million.

But once in place, the 144 strands of fiber-optic cable, able to feed data at the speed of light, should hold enough capacity for future growth, Hubbs said.

The BalsamWest network will be available to public, private and nonprofit groups throughout the six counties. Businesses, hospitals, schools and other groups could hook up to the network for broadband at prices comparable to those in larger metropolitan areas, Hubbs said.

The connection of the Southwestern Community College in the initial section will help not only the college, but also area businesses, according to Cecil Groves, the SCC president and a board member of the Rural Internet Access Authority.

When BalsamWest hooks up with the ERC backbone in Asheville, businesses in the farthest reaches of the state will have competitive connectivity.

"We can connect their employees in our area with others anywhere in the world, allowing them to work together in real-time just as if they were in the same room," Groves said.

For Spears and the Cherokee, that connectivity is the key to future growth. "Water, sewer, phone, good roads and Internet connections are all a must for economic development," he said.