Navajo Broadband 2009 – 2013 Broadband on Navajo: a $60 Million Dollar Opportunity

Navajo Broadband NTUA project updates

Great Review on Navajo Broadband brings up interesting points:

• ***Right of way issues are not worked out
• Surveys for new towers are yet to be completed
• Contractors will be hired for second phase of project, but not initial tower construction to be done by NTUA
• Model for reselling broadband as wholesalers is considered (even though this muni-wireless model has failed to function in more than 20 markets)
• NTUA is going to complete 60% of project and hire ~35 Workers
• NTUA is responsible to complete project in 3 years to receive funding
• Commnet Wireless the major partner ignored reporters interview requests

Time is of the essence and experienced contractors on Navajo know to question a revenue model that is going to use large cellular providers to offset initial construction costs. The population and cellular/broadband use on the Navajo Nation will need to expand to bring these types of partners on board for the project.

The amazing opportunity for Broadband on Navajo must be balanced with well designed local content

1. Who is going to create the content?
2. What can be done with such a powerful network ?

New jobs, revenues may stem from Navajo broadband grant
Staff Writer
Posted: 04/05/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT
By James Monteleone
Four Corners Business Journal (this article is in google cache)

FT. DEFIANCE, Ariz. As many as 35 new workers could be hired by the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority over the next three months to begin construction on a $46 million broadband and wireless Internet network across the Navajo Nation.
The project, funded in part with $32.2 million in federal stimulus dollars, has proposed to provide Internet access across more than 15,000 square miles of the rural Navajo Nation, NTUA General Manager Walter Haase said.
To connect 30,000 houses across the reservation and more than 2,000 businesses and community offices, the project will install more than 530 miles of fiberoptic transmission wire to provide high-speed Web service to the major Navajo cities, including Shiprock, Window Rock, Kayenta, Tuba City and Chinle.
Hoping to reach the more remote areas of the Navajo Nation, the project plans to build 33 new microwave transmission towers, more than doubling the 24 towers already established. The towers will transmit a 3G and 4G wireless system, meaning the development also will improve cell phone service across the reservation significantly, Hasse said.
The broadband project, which NTUA has contributed $11.6 million toward, is required to be completed within three years to qualify for the full $32.2 million stimulus award. Construction to connect the fiber line in Farmington out past Shiprock could begin in as few as three months, Hasse said.
Dozens of new NTUA employees are necessary because the tribal utility plans to independently complete as much as 60 percent of the fiber line construction work.
“We will be keeping those crews long-term, because when we’re done, we’re going to have crews on the east side and west side for maintenance,” Hasse said. The added workforce will be balanced out by attrition in the years following the project completion.
Other needed work, such as the surveying and construction of the microwave towers, will be awarded to third-party contractors following an open bid process.
The massive broadband expansion plan is broken down in five phases. Only the first phase in pending clearance to begin construction. Right-of-way, surveying and engineering contractors are being sought for later phases, Hasse said.
Hoping to develop economic opportunity, NTUA identified the proposed wireless microwave towers as a source of new revenues.
Atlanta-based Commnet Wireless, which already operates 10 towers on the reservation to resell connections to commercial wireless companies such as Verizon and Alltel, has invested $2.2 million in the project for a share of rights to the improved wireless connectivity.
A spokesman for Commnet Wireless did not return repeated calls for comment on the project.
“Even though we got this wonderful grant, we still have $14 million in assets we have to get a return on,” Hasse said. “We had to have a business plan behind this, and part of the backbone of that business plan is dealing with the Verizons and AT&Ts and all those folks.”
NTUA plans to also resell connectivity to other companies, acting as a wholesaler. Tribal leaders will determine later this year whether to independently pursue retail Internet and wireless services for its customers or rely solely on the services of other companies.
The broadband Web connection in remote areas of the Navajo Nation will mean greatly improved opportunities for residents otherwise cut-off from technology, including expanded education programs in schools and advanced telemedicine services at community hospitals, government leaders have said in the announcement of the stimulus funds in late March.
Initially the project will provide improved Internet access to at least 49 Navajo chapter houses, as well as hospitals, police stations and other government or public offices. Residential Internet connections will follow.
“It’s going to help us. Someone has said we’re 30 years behind the times. I believe it. … I see it,” NavajoNation President Joe Shirley said following the project announcement. “This infusion of new capital is going to bring us a long ways in terms of helping us to catch up with the mainstream.”
Although the proposed broadband connection on the Navajo Nation will tap into the fiberline that connects Farmington with Albuquerque, the added demand for bandwidth will not weaken services already provided in Farmington or Durango, said Steven Dorf, CEO of FastTrack Communications, the Durango-based company that operates the fiberline backbone to Albuquerque and Grand Junction.
“It shouldn’t, because if it’s engineered properly, there’s plenty of bandwidth. It may not even touch the same facilities that go through Farmington,” Dorf said of the effects of increased demand on established connections.
FastTrack Communications has proposed to work with the Navajo broadband project to offer a variety of Internet Service Provider options, increasing competition and lowering overall prices for users’ Web access.
The NTUA manager said although the timeframe is a challenge, NTUA is committed to getting thebroadband expansion plan completed efficiently.
“We’re aggressively engaged in this and we’re trying to do our best,” Hasse said. “We already put a good first-step forward.”