Chapters scramble for Internet
Frontier slammed with calls after OnSat announcement

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Though the Navajo Nation’s 110 chapters may have lost wireless service provided by OnSat Native American Services Inc. Monday, those served by local Internet providers Frontier and Sacred Wind, as well as the Nation’s Department of Information Technology, are still connected to the Internet.

An Associated Press story announced Friday that OnSat was being forced to shut down Internet services to the Nation’s chapter houses effective April 7 because Universal Service Administration Corp., which administers the chapter library E-rate program, has not released 2006-2007 funds to SES Americom, the company which provides the satellite transponder connection for OnSat.

OnSat CEO David Stephens said the Nation’s chapters were notified Sunday by fax that chapter satellite Internet service was interrupted for nonpayment.

“OnSat has provided the Internet service to all chapters, including yours, since 2001 without interruption, in spite of it taking an average of almost two years to get paid since inception.

“OnSat is NOT going out of business! OnSat just needs to get paid,” the notice states. “You can get the service turned on again by paying OnSat directly for it.”

Stephens wrote via e-mail, “We are going to work with the chapters to provide service to them and the local residents. It’s time that this program became self-sustainable without government grants and giveaways and I believe it can.”

Friday’s announcement triggered a rash of calls to Frontier from concerned citizens.

“We answered probably Friday, 80 to 100 calls,” said General Manager Joe Hausner. “I think it was blown out of proportion.”

“The sad thing is we had a number of customers call, worried about their services. We had a lot of elderly people call, worried if they were going to lose their phone service ... afraid of their medical well-being because they need 9-1-1, and this just led them astray.”

Frontier issued its own announcement Monday, stating, “Frontier’s Internet and phone service continues to be up and running and as reliable as ever. Frontier has no connection or affiliation with OnSat and we want to assure our customers that Frontier Internet service will be on and working.”

LoRenzo Bates, chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, said of the OnSat announcement, “It’s purely political, what they’re trying to maneuver to do. They know if they pull in those chapters, those chapters will lobby the President’s Office, they’ll lobby somebody to get them paid.

“They’ll run to their council delegates and then there will be some legislation telling someone to take care of it. In my opinion, it’s a cheap shot by OnSat.”

Frontier’s telephone service covers all of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

“Out of the 110 chapters, I believe we serve 80 of them,” Hausner said. Five do not have phone service because it’s cost prohibitive. “When you’ve got to spend $400,000 for one phone, it’s not going to happen soon,” he added.

John Badal, CEO of Sacred Wind, said his company is in the process of providing service in New Mexico by fixed wireless radio. “We are just starting to build out our infrastructure. We already have high-speed Internet going to the Huerfano Chapter south of Bloomfield. It’s even more high speed than satellite.

“In May, we’re going to be taking high-speed Internet to homes in the Rock Springs area. We serve a number of chapter houses with just dial-up Internet service and we’ll be upgrading to higher speed toward the end of the year. We don’t have satellite service,” Badal said.

Donovan Andy, community service coordinator for Red Valley Chapter, said Monday that his chapter was one left without service.

“Life seems to be difficult today because we don’t have Internet services. We put a sign on the door saying that there is no Internet service until further notice.

“But we did make contact with Frontier this morning to see if we are able to get services with them. They’re supposed to get back with me. A lot of people are calling into their office wanting service. I guess we’re just one of their 110 chapters.”

Andy did not know how much the chapter pays for Internet service. “We don’t receive a bill. I believe the Nation takes care of all that.”

Frontier’s Hausner said his company does not have wireless service available at the moment, but “we are getting into that. We can give them regular high-speed Internet — a lot of people refer to it as DSL, and it’s a 1 meg service — or they can get a dial-up, or they can get a dedicated T-1, or they can get Ethernet, which is up to 6 megs of high-speed Internet.”

The cost depends on location, “but the regular high-speed, the 1 meg, on an average is $83 on down,” for more than one computer, he said. “If they sign a one-, two-, or three-year commitment it gets cheaper. As a last resort, we can offer dial-up to anybody, and that’s what — $20 a month.”
Hausner said 25 to 30 Navajo chapters and several schools are now served by Frontier.

“I know we provide a lot of the schools dedicated T-1, even up to DS3. We do a lot of the E-rate for a lot of the customers here on the Nation, whether it’s rural health, the schools or the Nation,” he added.

Sacred Wind’s Badal said once their system up, the service will start at around $39.99 for 256 kilobytes per second. “Mind you, the chapter houses qualify for the E-rate subsidies, so they would be paying only about 11 percent of that.

“The $39.99 would be for one computer. If the chapter has need — as at Huerfano Chapter — for a bank of computers, we would move away from DSL product and provide just a high-speed channel, like a T-1 line. We’re talking about a higher price, but the chapter would be paying only 11 percent of that under the E-rate,” Badal said.