Broadband Internet services expected for most Washington state reservations (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Broadband Internet services expected for most Washington state
reservations

Posted: February 02, 2004 - 2:53pm EST
by: James May / Indian Country Today

SEATTLE - There is a common half-serious joke making its way around
Indian country that says American Indians invented wireless technology
with smoke signals. Though smoke signals were more common on the clear
and open plains than the rainy and varied landscape of the Pacific
Northwest, modern technology has found a way to compensate.

A partnership between tribal organizations and business is bringing
broadband Internet service to rural Washington state tribes. Around the
middle of February, 20 families on the Sauk-Suiattle reservation,
located about 80 miles through difficult terrain northeast of Seattle,
will receive high-powered computers as the first step toward having a
broadband Internet service.

A broadband service is a wireless Internet connection that emanates from
a transmitting source like radio or television. The tribe will also
have the ability to be an Internet Service Provider to not just tribal
members but others in the surrounding rural community.

The project is a joint plan by Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians
Economic Development Corporation (ATNI-EDC) and Verizon Avenue,
formerly a small time local carrier or "ma bell" that was bought by the
larger cell phone company. ATNI-EDC is a non-profit organization
representing 54 Pacific Northwest tribes.

"We hope this project will act as a model for other major telecom
corporations, who have overlooked bringing new technology and expanded
service to rural areas," said ATNI-EDC President Dave Tovey in a press
release.

Also contributing to the plan were separate foundations set up by
Microsoft pioneers Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who contributed grant
funding for the feasibility studies on Washington state reservations.

Sometimes compared to the 1930s Rural Electrification Act, this project
stems from a provision in the 1996 Telecommunications Act that asked
that federal subsidies to be given to telecommunications companies that
would provide services to rural areas. This has proven to be especially
valuable for tribes as most are located in rural areas.

The Sauk-Suiattle tribe is the first of several tribes that is due for a
telecommunications make over. Already plans are under way to provide
similar broadband service for the Lummi, Makah and Lower Elwah tribes
in addition to several others.  

Over the next few years, all 29 of Washington state’s tribes are
supposed to at least have broadband projects on the drawing board.

Elstun Lauesen, ATNI-EDC technology director, said both his organization
and Verizon Avenue are following a strict protocol. Tribal councils of
the prospective tribes are consulted before the plan is laid out and
both the tribal government and tribal members are being consulted
before both allowing the project to proceed and designing a network
that works best for both individual tribal members and the tribal
government.

"This is a locally-driven project," said Lawrence Spotted Bird who runs
a tribal technology consulting firm that is working on the project. "We
don’t come in with an established vision."

Spotted Bird noted how quickly the Sauk-Suiattle project came together.
It was only last November that the feasibility study was done and the
project has a tentative Feb. 10 start date.

Sources close to the project say that Verizon Avenue became involved in
the project largely because 90 percent of the metropolitan market is
already sewn up by the telecommunications giant. Verizon Avenue
apparently still has retained its old "ma bell" staff who are described
by one source as "a lot of younger people who wanted to capitalize on
the open rural markets."

Verizon Avenue realized that the rural market was the best way to expand
business and the 1996 Act helped put the federal funding in place to
make this a reality. Opening service on the reservations allows the
company a foothold in rural areas of Washington state and reservations
will serve as de facto field posts for Verizon Avenue as Internet
Service Providers.

The subsidies allow Verizon Avenue to provide a lower cost installation
and thus lower costs on the tribal members who are expected to pay only
$10 to $12 a month for Internet service. Unlike analog telephone
service the broadband, coupled with a high-speed digital connection
does not price its service according to time.

Since the tribes will also have the option of being their own Internet
Service Provider with the ability to sell low cost service this adds an
additional form of revenue for the project.

Though, as in the case of the Sauk-Suiattle reservation, it will be
necessary in many instances to install additional land-based lines to
service the area which can cost in the tens of thousands of dollars,
Verizon Avenue is expected to recoup their costs within three to five
years.

A similar, though unrelated project was done a few years ago on the
Suquamish reservation close to Seattle. Bob Gemmell, a Suquamish tribal
member who worked on that project said it was easier for them to do
their project because of the nearness of an existing fiber cable.

Suquamish, located immediately across the Puget Sound from Seattle,
benefited from its proximity to that city and thus eliminated the
difficulty of having to install a new line, a luxury many of the
state’s more remote tribes do not have.

In fact, ATNI-EDC Technology Director Lauesen said that many of the
tribes in Washington state are reliant on antiquated phone lines.

"Some of those phone lines have become so degraded that (only a low
speed connection) could be made. Now the tribes will have the fastest
and most modern connections."

This article can be found at http://IndianCountry.com/?1075751806