Post by Okwes on Apr 6, 2008 12:47:12 GMT -5
Navajo Nation to Lose Internet Signal
Friday, April 04, 2008 - 05:17 AM
www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/id/D8VQRKVG0
<http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/id/D8VQRKVG0>
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
The thousands of Navajo Nation residents who rely on the Internet to
work, study and communicate across their 27,000-square-mile reservation
will be out of luck Monday, if their service provider is shuttered as
planned.
"It´s going to be a sad day," said Ernest Franklin, director of the
tribe´s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
A tribal audit last year revealed that Utah-based provider OnSat Network
Communications Inc. may have double-billed the tribe, and it raised
questions about how the tribe requested bids for the Internet contract.
Those discoveries led the Universal Service Administration Co., which
administers the service under the Federal Communications Commission´s
E-rate program, to tell the tribe March 28 that it would withhold $2.1
million from OnSat.
Jim Fitting, an attorney for OnSat, said the delay in payment means it
can´t pay subcontractor SES Americom for satellite time.
"With USAC taking this particular position, it doesn´t look like
we´re going to get paid in the foreseeable future," Fitting said.
"We´re already $4 million in the hole, so why should we continue
doing it?"
Most evenings, when residents get off work, the reservation´s chapter
houses are closed, but their wireless signals remain live. So it´s
common to see residents with laptops sitting in cars outside working
away, a local official said.
Through the Washington, D.C.-based USAC, the FCC reimburses 85 percent
to 90 percent of the costs for Internet service to 70 of the tribe´s
110 chapter houses, which operate like city governments. The Navajo
Nation covers the other 10 percent to 15 percent of the cost and offers
service inside the chapter house and nearby through Wi-Fi.
The USAC told Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. in a March 28 letter that
it is withholding money for OnSat for 2006-07 because of the possible
overbilling and because the tribe didn´t comply with federal rules
that require it to select the most cost-effective service or equipment
through a fair, open and competitive bidding process.
The USAC asked the tribe to prove OnSat provided the service it is
billing for and has not overbilled.
OnSat won a preliminary injunction last July in Window Rock District
Court barring the tribe´s auditor from further disseminating the
audit, said Fitting, the OnSat lawyer.
"We don´t believe this audit is valid," Fitting said.
The Navajo Nation has until May to respond to USAC´s letter, and the
USAC can release full or partial funding or continue to withhold
funding, said spokeswoman Laura Betancourt.
Tribal regulator Franklin said he has given the USAC documents detailing
how OnSat was selected and has shown USAC personnel the service
operating last year at sites they randomly selected.
"We proved that we are delivering the bandwidth and that we went through
the proper procurement system," he said. "We had to dig up all these
documents."
OnSat will continue to provide Internet services for the tribe´s
Division of Public Safety and the Office of the President and Vice
President, offices whose satellite service isn´t dependent on FCC
funding, Fitting said.
Each Navajo chapter received a grant for computers and Internet access
from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation´s Native American Access
to Technology Program in 2000. But it wasn´t possible to establish
dial-up access _ or create a wireless grid _ because the reservation
largely lacked wired telephone service.
So the tribe´s Division of Community Development contracted with
OnSat in 2001 to provide satellite Internet service to the chapter
houses _ even though satellite Internet technology is costly, slow and
unreliable.
The tribe eventually would have stopped using OnSat, Franklin said, but
it needed to sustain the satellite connections for at least two years
until a wireless grid is completed on the reservation.
"It´s not like it´s not being used and it´s just going to go
away," he said. "It´s used tremendously by the public. It´s just
sad that this has to happen."
Navajo President Shirley said reservation residents have come to rely on
Internet access to improve their professional and educational lives.
"It would be a very sad day for the children and people of the Navajo
Nation if the dark clouds descend, the lights go out, and access is
denied to the chapter houses on the reservation, in large part, because
USAC has failed to timely fund our application," Shirley said in a
December letter to Mel Blackwell, vice president of USAC´s Schools
and Libraries Division.
Inscription Chapter House community services coordinator Victoria Bydone
said she is bracing for a backlash from residents who typically park
outside her chapter house in the evening.
"It´s going to be unfortunate," she said. "It´s not going to be
very good."
Friday, April 04, 2008 - 05:17 AM
www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/id/D8VQRKVG0
<http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/id/D8VQRKVG0>
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
The thousands of Navajo Nation residents who rely on the Internet to
work, study and communicate across their 27,000-square-mile reservation
will be out of luck Monday, if their service provider is shuttered as
planned.
"It´s going to be a sad day," said Ernest Franklin, director of the
tribe´s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
A tribal audit last year revealed that Utah-based provider OnSat Network
Communications Inc. may have double-billed the tribe, and it raised
questions about how the tribe requested bids for the Internet contract.
Those discoveries led the Universal Service Administration Co., which
administers the service under the Federal Communications Commission´s
E-rate program, to tell the tribe March 28 that it would withhold $2.1
million from OnSat.
Jim Fitting, an attorney for OnSat, said the delay in payment means it
can´t pay subcontractor SES Americom for satellite time.
"With USAC taking this particular position, it doesn´t look like
we´re going to get paid in the foreseeable future," Fitting said.
"We´re already $4 million in the hole, so why should we continue
doing it?"
Most evenings, when residents get off work, the reservation´s chapter
houses are closed, but their wireless signals remain live. So it´s
common to see residents with laptops sitting in cars outside working
away, a local official said.
Through the Washington, D.C.-based USAC, the FCC reimburses 85 percent
to 90 percent of the costs for Internet service to 70 of the tribe´s
110 chapter houses, which operate like city governments. The Navajo
Nation covers the other 10 percent to 15 percent of the cost and offers
service inside the chapter house and nearby through Wi-Fi.
The USAC told Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. in a March 28 letter that
it is withholding money for OnSat for 2006-07 because of the possible
overbilling and because the tribe didn´t comply with federal rules
that require it to select the most cost-effective service or equipment
through a fair, open and competitive bidding process.
The USAC asked the tribe to prove OnSat provided the service it is
billing for and has not overbilled.
OnSat won a preliminary injunction last July in Window Rock District
Court barring the tribe´s auditor from further disseminating the
audit, said Fitting, the OnSat lawyer.
"We don´t believe this audit is valid," Fitting said.
The Navajo Nation has until May to respond to USAC´s letter, and the
USAC can release full or partial funding or continue to withhold
funding, said spokeswoman Laura Betancourt.
Tribal regulator Franklin said he has given the USAC documents detailing
how OnSat was selected and has shown USAC personnel the service
operating last year at sites they randomly selected.
"We proved that we are delivering the bandwidth and that we went through
the proper procurement system," he said. "We had to dig up all these
documents."
OnSat will continue to provide Internet services for the tribe´s
Division of Public Safety and the Office of the President and Vice
President, offices whose satellite service isn´t dependent on FCC
funding, Fitting said.
Each Navajo chapter received a grant for computers and Internet access
from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation´s Native American Access
to Technology Program in 2000. But it wasn´t possible to establish
dial-up access _ or create a wireless grid _ because the reservation
largely lacked wired telephone service.
So the tribe´s Division of Community Development contracted with
OnSat in 2001 to provide satellite Internet service to the chapter
houses _ even though satellite Internet technology is costly, slow and
unreliable.
The tribe eventually would have stopped using OnSat, Franklin said, but
it needed to sustain the satellite connections for at least two years
until a wireless grid is completed on the reservation.
"It´s not like it´s not being used and it´s just going to go
away," he said. "It´s used tremendously by the public. It´s just
sad that this has to happen."
Navajo President Shirley said reservation residents have come to rely on
Internet access to improve their professional and educational lives.
"It would be a very sad day for the children and people of the Navajo
Nation if the dark clouds descend, the lights go out, and access is
denied to the chapter houses on the reservation, in large part, because
USAC has failed to timely fund our application," Shirley said in a
December letter to Mel Blackwell, vice president of USAC´s Schools
and Libraries Division.
Inscription Chapter House community services coordinator Victoria Bydone
said she is bracing for a backlash from residents who typically park
outside her chapter house in the evening.
"It´s going to be unfortunate," she said. "It´s not going to be
very good."