Navajo Nation Losing Internet Access 360
An anonymous reader writes "Due to contracts that are allegedly FUBAR, and associated wrangling, the Navajo Nation is being cut off by its satellite ISP. This is the final stage of the process, which already deprived chapter houses of access last April. While the business mechanisms play themselves into the expected ludicrous snarl, the real question may be: Is there a place for an inexpensive ham/technogeek/FOSS solution that could bypass the antics of the for-pay providers?"
HAM is right out. (Score:5, Informative)
Not only is amateur radio restricted to non commercial uses - meaning important things like NO ADS ALLOWED more than simply no generation of profit for sending over those frequencies. However, it's also "no vulgarity", and "no encryption" as well.
I'll be out there in 3 weeks (Score:3, Informative)
I did some volunteer web development for a non-profit that deals with a high school on a navajo reservation. A lot of the students only had access to computers at school, and I was thinking that the OLPC project would be perfect for them... although I'm not so enthusiastic with the direction that OLPC seems to be taking.
But anyway, having a mesh-network with cheap netbooks like the OLPC would be a great way to extend access from some single source, if one could be found or created.
Also, I'll be going out there in 3 weeks with some members of this non-profit that I worked for, so I'll get a first-hand look at their situation.
This is not a USAC issue. (Score:5, Informative)
This not due to USAC's problems.
This action is being taken because the service provider and the applicant for the services BOTH conspired to break the rules surrounding the ERATE (Federal program that gives discounts on ELEGIBLE technology, at ELIGIBLE locations, to ELIGIBLE entities).
Wireless services were ONLY supposed to be offered at eligible school locations (classrooms, areas where data needed to transit to GET TO classrooms), but instead the wireless services were installed as a generic community service, some of them winding up in admin areas, boarding halls, and bus barns (all NON-ELIGIBLE areas).
Some folks are making this out to be a case of 'the white man screwing over the indian,' where in reality it is a case of 'the white man catching another white man and the indian breaking rules, and making them pay for their actions.'
For more information, go dig up some article from the Funds for Learning website (www.fundsforlearning.com) or eschoolnews.com
Very hard area to serve (Score:5, Informative)
This is definitely not the kind of problem that can be solved by geeks writing code. It's a physical layer issue, one of the hardest "last miles" in the country.
The Navajo Nation sits in hilly desert country. The population density is very low (it's desert, after all) and it's pretty far from anywhere (the AZ/NM/UT border). Most of the telephone service is provided by Frontier Navajo, who I think bought the tribal telephone company. On the NM side, some is now being served by Sacred Wind, a new phone company using WiMAX, with USF funding, to cover areas with an average population density below one person per square mile. Qwest, using old wireline technology, wouldn't go there; Sacred Wind needs to spend something approaching $10k/home using the latest radio technology. That's a fraction of what wireline would cost - and btw, USAC (the FCC's USF subsidiary) might well have spent more (they've funded >$20k/home for FTTH) if asked; that program is totally out of control. See "Sandwich Isles Communications" for a real horror show.
Frontier's network, which covers most of the reservation, is a traditional rural wireline telco, incapable of providing broadband outside of the villages. And if you want to lease a T1 from them, try $75/mile! So satellite, while hardly ideal, is usually the best option. And the bureaucrats should get off their duffs and fix the problem.
I've done some preliminary studies and it looks like some types of high-powered mesh radio network can cover rustic plains at reasonable cost, but this is in the foothills of the Rockies, not flatland, and the hills get in the way, so it would be very costly (as with Sacred Wind).
Correction (Score:3, Informative)
Some of the poorest in the nation. The African American population still has the lowest household income.
Re:Government as usual (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Government as usual (Score:5, Informative)
"How hard is it to run a kosher bidding process?"
I'm posting anonymously, but one of my clients from time to time is a tribal government. It's actually pretty damn hard to run a kosher anything, when there are no trained employees whatsoever.
Consider that only 7% of the Navajo nation over age 25 has a college degree. That includes associates degrees too. Only 56% made it through high school.
Need someone who can e.g. run Excel or quickbooks? And someone who isn't caught up in the various things that occur disproportionately often in extremely poor areas, such as health deterioration, family issues, drug abuse, etc? Good luck with that.
Say you're lucky and land the perfect employee to help with running your government office. Congratulations, they just left for better pay in another division (or off the reservation entirely)!
It's really a rather difficult and sad situation that won't resolve itself for a generation or more, barring drastic change.
Re:HAM is right out. (Score:3, Informative)
That was your buddha moment.
Please stop saying "Native American" (Score:3, Informative)
Besides, even the T Tex isn't really a native American. They walked here just like the Indians did. Indians just got here earlier than I did.
Re:Oh the government works... (Score:3, Informative)
Affirmative action is the new racism. It is a very effective method of marginalizing non-whites.
"Your ethnicity is a handicap, so here's your cripple check."
But hey, it is just so easy.
What is wrong with saying "Sorry, folks, but the world is a real place and sometimes fucked up shit happens. Deal with it." and letting the chips fall where they may? Oh, no that would be awful! People coming from the bottom would actually have to work hard, and would have to teach their children to value the things they have. And that wouldn't be easy at all. How terrible!
On the subject of "Native Americans", the idea that indigenous peoples have some "right to live however they want" is a crock of shit. Indigenous peoples, minorities, and majority groups all have the same "right to life" as everyone else: the right to live as they are able to, not as they want to.
I was born in Illinois. I am a Native American. Where's my cripple check? Never mind , keep it. I take pride in working for a living.
So can you.
As a result of affirmative action, "minority" people are becoming less equipped to compete on a level playing field.
It is one of the biggest scams alive today.
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Let the modding-down begin.
Don't know much about geography... (Score:4, Informative)
.
allow me to introduce you to the geography of the 26,000 square mile Navajo Nation [lapahie.com]
Re:Are you asking for a free internet solution...? (Score:5, Informative)
It is 60 miles to the nearest town with net access.
So I will venture that town has fiber.
Fiber can be run close to 200 miles without a line amp.
A cpl of Asynchronous Xfer Mode cards for each end are a
few hundred bucks, and some older refurb Cisco gear and
your good to go.
An OC-3 in the town 60 miles away from the local
carrier will cost less than $10,000/mo. and give them
155 Mbps that they can hookup to a Squid Box to
use as caching mechanism to save on xmitting the
same data twice to two different hosts.
Local cable TV companies ran their fiber in aerial protected
cabling with a strength enhancing strand down the center.
When you consider how much aerial fiber the cable companies
ran in major cities, I'd say it is easily doable.
The Navajo should contract it out.
For 2.25 billion I dare say they could do their own Coop ISP
like some other ppl have done around the US.
http://www.coop.net/ [coop.net]
And when they run it run multi-strand in case one fiber pair
has issues at some point in the future.
In fact I bet as a PR stunt Cisco would come out and profile
the whole setup for them.
Just my two cents...
Re:Oh the government works... (Score:3, Informative)
That's what happens all over the world.
And that's also a major cause of conflicts around the world, too.
We have similar issues here in NZ. It's about admitting wrong-doings and being diplomatic, rather than this antiquated notion of conquering other countries.
Re:Are you asking for a free internet solution...? (Score:4, Informative)
The real problem (Score:2, Informative)