Representatives of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUS) had meetings at the FCC last week to ask that NTUA Wireless be approved as eligible telecommunications carrier under the FCC’s Universal Service Fund program. Among those NTUA Wireless met with were Commissioner Robert McDowell and Zac Katz, aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmmqub). NTUA Wireless officials discussed the build-out of the company’s broadband infrastructure project covering parts of the Navajo Nation, the filing said. “The group discussed the services to be enabled by the broadband project, as well as services that would be enabled through participation in USF programs,” the filing said. “The Tribal members of the group representing NTUA Wireless discussed the need for ETC designation to enable potential funding to address various communications needs on the Navajo Nation. The NTUA Wireless business representatives reiterated their desire for the FCC to act on NTUA Wireless’ pending petition for ETC designation, acknowledging the FCC’s workload."
Carlos Kirjner, ex-aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski who helped lead work on the National Broadband Plan, hired by Sanford Bernstein & Co. as an Internet analyst … William Allan to retire as president of Verizon Delaware at the end of the year … Members of FCC Intergovernmental Advisory Committee: Michael Bloomberg, New York; Gary Resnick, Wilton Manors, Fla.; Arlanda Williams, Terrebonne Parish, La.; Dow Constantine, King County, Wash.; Joyce Dickerson, Richland County, S.C.; Kenneth Fellman, Cherry Hills Village, Colo.; State Reps. Chris Perone, Connecticut, Thomas Sloan, Kansas, and Michael Vaughn, Maryland; Ronald Briséé, Florida Public Service Commission; Cherie Moomaw, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Wash.; Thomas Brandon Stephens, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Brian Tagaban, Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission.
The U.S. GPS Industry Council used its reply comments in the broadband for native nations proceeding to take a swipe at LightSquared in docket 11-41 (http://xrl.us/bk5o48). “In its comments, LightSquared takes credit for the planned distribution of up to 2,000 MSS satellite phones to units of the Indian Health Service. … LightSquared then closes its comments with a request that the Commission consider extending waivers to cover LightSquared’s 4G LTE terrestrial mobile service base stations in order to facilitate deployment of satellite infrastructure on Tribal Lands,” the council said in its comments. “These two aspects of LightSquared’s comments are fundamentally at odds.”
Frontier has already been given a chance to prove its case against disaggregating some of its coverage in Navajo tribal areas and hasn’t made a convincing argument, the Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said in reply comments posted to docket 09-197. In commenting on NTUA Wireless’ petition to become an eligible telecommunications carrier, Frontier said it had already disaggregated the White Mountains area and “any further disaggregation” following from NTUA’s petition “would impose high administrative burdens on it,” the Nation said in its filing. “First, Frontier provides absolutely no data as to the extent of any added administrative burdens in order to support its claim,” the Nation said. “Second, there are significant public policy reasons to disaggregate that portion of the White Mountains service area located within the Navajo Nation, reasons which outweigh any administrative burden placed on Frontier.” Furthermore, “disaggregation of this area is fully consistent with Navajo sovereignty and self-determination,” the Nation said.
The Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NNTRC) asked for a 15-day extension, until May 31, to file comments on the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority’s (NTUA’s) application to be designated as an eligible telecommunications carrier providing Lifeline service to people living on Navajo lands. NTUA is proposing to provide service in combination with Commnet Wireless. “The NNTRC is using this docket as an avenue for collecting and reviewing public comment on the NTUA Wireless Petition, rather than hold its own proceeding,” the commission said. “As part of its Reply Comments, the NNTRC will issue its findings and order concerning whether the grant of ETC status to NTUA Wireless on the Navajo Nation is consistent with Navajo law, and is in the best interest of the Navajo people.” NTUA said it plans to offer service in an area covering 27,000 square miles, extending into 13 counties in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. “By leveraging existing NTUA resources and partnering with an established wireless service provider, NTUA Wireless will be uniquely positioned to offer competitive retail wireless telecommunications services to underserved areas of the Navajo Nation,” NTUA said in a March filing. NTUA Wireless will provide jobs for members of the Navajo tribe and utilize its expertise in the utility business “to offer a deeper penetration of retail wireless telecommunications service into the Navajo Nation,” it said.
Telephone service providers asked to be relieved of the duty of verifying customers’ eligibility for the Lifeline program. Verification should be a government function, they said in comments to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service on proposed changes to the Lifeline and Link-Up programs. They split on the question of whether the Lifeline program should include broadband and whether households should be eligible for more than one discounted phone connection.
The Navajo Nation urged the FCC to withhold a final decision on a Smith Bagley petition regarding the Universal Service Fund. There are additional policy concerns “that the Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission would like to consider,” the tribe said in an ex parte filing. In February, Smith Bagley, doing business as Cellular One, requested a waiver enabling it and other eligible telecom carriers “to obtain uncapped high-cost support to provide or expand telecommunications services to residents of the Eastern Navajo Agency” in New Mexico, the FCC said in a public notice. The tribe would like to obtain more information from the parties involved and allow the NNTRC to provide the FCC with the tribe’s official policy, the Navajo Nation said.
The Commerce Department will have made more than $4 billion in grants by September to help connect to broadband communities that are unserved or underserved, Secretary Gary Locke said at a briefing Thursday run by the Democratic Leadership Council. The department is funding “middle-mile highways of high-speed Internet” connecting community anchor institutions like colleges, hospitals and government institutions, Locke said.
Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), long a provider of internal corporate communications systems, have found a new niche in providing rural Internet service and Internet backup for governments and businesses, industry officials said. While terrestrial fiber lines can provide far faster speeds, VSAT offers higher reliability, functioning without costly infrastructure when land lines are down, a major issue during natural disasters, they said.
Some federal rules and practices don’t recognize the “special characteristics” of tribal lands, Sacred Wind Communications said in comments on the FCC’s development of a rural broadband strategy (CD April 3 p15). For example, the definition of a rural community for the Rural Utility Service’s Community Connect broadband grant program “excludes communities that are not registered as Census Designated Places,” and only a handful of the 111 Navajo chapters are registered, Sacred Wind said. Federal law requires environmental and archeological surveys before any construction using federal dollars, even in tribal lands that have either been surveyed or within utility easements, said the carrier, which serves Navajos. Sacred Wind also asked the FCC to give “special consideration” to small rural local exchange carriers for the purchase of wireless spectrum to serve their own customer base. It should give eligible telecom carrier status to national wireless carriers in RLEC territory only where the rural carrier has already been provided affordable spectrum of its own, it said. Sacred Wind also asked the FCC to make arrangements with satellite providers to make satellite service more affordable for RLECs. The carrier discouraged government agencies from setting a broadband speed minimum for grants and loans. “On Navajo lands, for example, the most feasible delivery system to reach all of its communities would differ from one Chapter to the next,” it said.