05.17.02
WirelessNewsfactor.com
by Dan Nowicki
Firm Lobbies Congress for Balloon-Wireless Idea
"I think we all know that wireless is an answer to the problems in Indian country, particularly on reservations the size of the Navajo Reservation," said Senator John McCain (R-Arizona).
Chandler, Ariz.-based Space Data Corp. wants Capitol Hill lawmakers to consider its idea of attaching state-of-the-art wireless technology to weather balloons as an easy way to deploy crucial telecommunications services to remote Indian reservations.
Space Data Corp., located at Stellar Air Park in Chandler, has devised a concept called SkySite that would put light-weight electronic "repeaters" on National Weather Service balloons to create a coast-to-coast telecommunications system that wouldn't need cell phone towers or satellites.
"The Space Data network will not only fill in urban coverage holes but also extend ubiquitous coverage into previously uncovered rural areas," Gerald Knoblach, the company's chairman and CEO, said in written testimony submitted to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation and Indian Affairs committees.
The two Senate committees held a joint hearing Tuesday to explore tribal telecommunications problems.
Emergency Calls
According to 1990 census
information cited by the senators, only 47 percent of Indian
homes on reservations even had a telephone, let alone Internet
access. That makes it impossible for many Indian families
to dial 911 — a vital service that most Americans take for
granted — in an emergency. Less than 30 percent of Indian
homes have Internet access, lawmakers said.
"I think this speaks poorly of us, that we haven't paid attention to this problem," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a Commerce Committee member. "We're essentially leaving some of our Indian reservations stranded in the 19th Century."
Digital Divide
The reasons for the "digital
divide" between
Indian country and the rest of the United States, witnesses
said, are that Indian tribes lack the money to build the
needed telecommunications infrastructure on the often sprawling,
remote and sparsely populated reservations, and private companies
haven't had any economic incentive to do so.
On three Arizona reservations — the Gila River near Chandler, the Navajo and the San Carlos — just more than 25 percent of Indian households have a telephone, according to the 1990 statistics, which are still the most recent available figures.
Meanwhile, even among the poorest off-reservation American households, nearly 80 percent at least have a phone. Some witnesses said the Indian reservation situation remains dire 12 years later, though Mike Strand, a top executive with Montana Independent Telecommunications Systems, described the 1990 statistics relied upon by the committees as "hopelessly out of date."
'Wireless is an Answer'
"I think we
all know that wireless is an answer to the problems in Indian
country, particularly on reservations the size of the Navajo
Reservation," said Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz.
The Space Data Corp.'s SkySite proposal wasn't specifically discussed, but a company executive who observed the hearings said the initial feedback from Federal Communications Commission and National Weather Service officials has been positive.
Charles Tracy, Space Data Corp.'s vice president for flight operations, said the company hopes one day to become a "carrier's carrier" that will work with existing wireless carriers to ensure that cell-phone users won't ever be out of range, even when deep in wilderness areas.
Tracy praised a FCC program that lets companies who extend telecommunications services to tribal lands get credits that can be used in wireless spectrum auctions. So far, Space Data Corp. has reached agreements with four tribes around the country. "The relationship with the Indian tribes is very important to us," Tracy said. "We've had good success with that program, and we're trying to even get even more credits before the time expires."
But some senators said they were less-than-happy with the FCC's record on Indian telecommunications issues. Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, got into a terse exchange with Dane Snowden, chief of the FCC's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, over whether the lack of basic telephone and Internet access could hamper Indians' contributions to post-Sept. 11 homeland security efforts.
"I'm not being facetious, but are we going to have smoke signals now," Inouye asked.